In the Shadow of the Mountain
by Vashti
Summary: Azkadellia is accidentally drawn to the Cains' aid, but they aren't the ones that need help.
1. In the Shadow of a Mountain

**Title:** In the Shadow of the Mountain  
**Author:** Vashti  
**Fandom:** Tin Man  
**Character(s):** Wyatt Cain, Jeb Cain, Azkadellia, just about everyone else  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary:** When Azkadellia is accidentally drawn to the aid of Wyatt and Jeb Cain, no one could forsee how it would change the princess' life.  
**Disclaimer:** The original characters belong to L. Frank Baum, SciFi Channel and their affiliates. No profit is made from this work.  
**Author's Notes1: **You may want to read "What We Know We Do Well" as the prologue to this piece, but it's not necessary.  
**Author's Notes2:** I don't usually make a big mention of this these days, but this is unbeta'ed. This piece will, theoretically, be long enough that the lack may become a factor. Just thought I'd warn you. Thanks to the good folks at ohzeebooks at LiveJournal for all their help and comments regarding Baum-esque canon as well as the things I missed during the mini-series, as well as ErinM who did a spot beta ;)

* * *

Chapter 1: In the Shadow of a Mountain

"Dad! What—!"

Jeb Cain cut himself off as his father finally wrenched his left arm out of his coat and dove head first into still water. Jeb was off his horse and by the water's edge within moments because, just like that, the water had swallowed up his father as if he hadn't just jumped in, fully clothed.

He looked around, anxious but with the careful eye of someone used to being thrown into unexpected danger. Near as he could tell there was no sane reason for his father to slide off his horse, chuck his hat and coat, and go diving into a still lake. But if he had seen something, something the lake had swallowed up the way it had swallowed up his father then…

The real question was did he go in or did he try to contact one of the princesses to get help.

Considering that his own short jacket was now in the vicinity of his knees and falling, it was looking like the first option. Besides, his father had been under too long. A brief flare of inspiration hit him, and he snatched the coat up from the cold ground. Inside his pocket was a trinket DG had given to him. "Something Az showed me how to do," she said when she'd given him the little pewter dragonfly. "You hold it and think something and it tells me. Sorta. I'm not very good yet so it works best with strong emotions and short messages. Or maybe that's strong emotions _or_ short messages."

Jeb had been about to pocket and forget it when his father had touched his arm. "Sounds like it'd be good in emergencies."

"By Ozma, I hope so," Jeb muttered as he crushed the silver dragonfly in his hand, it's wings biting into his flesh. _Help!_ He threw all his panic into it, all his worry and all his fear. Then he threw it and his coat away ran to the water's edge.

"Jeb! Jeb!"

Wyatt Cain surfaced, face somehow both red and blue, spluttering as he bobbed. He watched his son pause, knee deep in the cold water. "Jeb! Help me get her out!"

"Get who out?" he called back, but he was already swimming toward them.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Pulling the chenille wrapper around her in spite of the dressing gown, Azkadellia looked out over her wide terrace as she waited for her sister. It was early, the first sun had yet to rise, but DG had already been by. She'd gone down to the kitchen to get them "a morning snack," as she put it, before she went off to lessons and Azkadellia… The Princess Azkadellia didn't know what she was going to do. There was only so much needle point a woman could do despite the surprising number of requests she'd received for her work.. DG was busy all morning; Tayborn, like most of her personal guards, was not much for socializing; and both her mother and father were traveling the country. If things continued on schedule they would be back within eight days. And that encompassed the entirety of her social circle.

If DG were around she would have added Ambrose but, while he was as gracious to her as he was to any other, she couldn't bear to impose herself upon him. The Cains as part of the regular rotation of her personal guard were enough. At least to them she, as the Sorceress, had been a distant figure of hate. The Witch had wanted to witness Ambrose's unmanning. She had wanted to be there when his most precious possession was forcibly taken away from him. She had wanted to laugh. Despite what everyone said, despite the truth that she was not the Witch and the Witch was not she, it had been the face of Azkadellia of the House of Gale, Royal Princess of the O.Z., that had gloated, her voice that had taunted, her eyes that had sparked as the deed was done. In spite of all his grace, Azkadellia didn't see the need in forcing that on him.

She and Raw avoided each other.

Azkadellia turned as she heard noise coming from the other side of her bedroom door. Unless there was an emergency it could only be Tayborn or DG.

"Hey, so, apparently my recipe for cranberry orange muffins won't work without cranberries, but the kitchens make a mean lemon poppy-seed so I got that instead."

DG then. She started forward to help her with the tray, quickly tying the ends of the wrapper behind her to free her hands. "You didn't have to get anything at all. Servants would have brought it up."

"I know, but I wanted it to be a just us event since I probably won't see you until dinner."

"Dinner? I thought your classes were over at one?"

Scowling, DG nudged Azkadellia out of the way, refusing to let her help. "Ran into Tutor on the way downstairs. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I swear I got all mixed up and called him Toto and suddenly I had a whole day's worth of classes."

"DG—" The gentle rebuke died on her tongue as she felt something tug at her.

"He was a dog at the time!" DG started setting out the things she'd brought: two large yellowish muffins, a basket of fruit, and a carafe of coffee to go with the two carafes of juice and water perpetually on the table. "Just because it's easier for him to get around on four legs instead of two. You'd think he'd cut me a little slack."

"No, DG, I—" She felt it again, sharper, as if a Shepard's hook had gone through her body and gotten caught on her spine

DG looked up from what she was doing then dropped the basket of fruit. "Az! What's wrong?"

"I don't—" But she did know. "DG, where's the dragonfly I gave you?"

"What dragon— You mean the spell-talky-thingy?"

"Yes!"

"Right here," she answered quickly, reaching into her trouser pockets. "It should be right here. Are you sure you gave me a dragonfly. I thought you gave me a horse?"

"To use for your own charm. The dragonfly is the one I— Oh!"

"Az!"

"Who did you give the dragonfly to, Deeg?"

"I—Cain! No, Jeb. Yesterday before he went out with his dad."

"They're in trouble."

"How do you know?"

"He's calling me."

"He's what?!"

"Give me your horse."

"My—Okay." DG slapped the small pewter horse into Azkadellia's palm and held on tight. "I'm not letting you go."

Azkadellia felt the pull again, but now that she knew what it meant it didn't hurt nearly as much. "I'm afraid this time, little sister, you won't have much choice."

"I'm never letting you go."

"Find the horse and you'll find us."

"Az that doesn—"

Azkadellia threw her free hand over her eyes as the force of the spell finally managed to dislocate her and threw her towards her sister…and towards the Cains.

OooOZzzZOooO

"Girl," Wyatt Cain answered sharply. It was all he could do to keep from biting his tongue while he tried to help her float. The cliff-shaded waters were deep and cold. The early morning chill didn't help things. Neither did having to dive almost to the bottom to find her. The water had swallowed her up so whole, so completely…if he hadn't seen her gone under he wouldn't have believed it at all.

No man had ever moved as slow as his son. Cain was sure it was the cold speaking, but seeing as he was the one in the water with the dead weight… "What the—"

"Dad!"

Cain's attention snapped to his son, almost within touching distance. "Help me get her to shore."

Grunting against the girl's dead-weight and their own clothes, they kicked and pushed until their feet touched bottom. Pure stubbornness got Wyatt Cain out of the water and on his feet, the girl held close to his chest. Together he and Jeb stumbled beyond the gravelly bank and onto the sparse grass. He all but dropped the girl.

"She's not breathing."

"I know. Get that hair out of the way."

…

"Got anything?"

"No."  
"Try again."

"I am. Just—"

…

"Back up she—"

Between them, the Cain men got the girl sitting up and on her side as she spat up half the lake and all the contents of her stomach before promptly slipping into unconsciousness. Once he was sure that she was breathing, Cain pulled her close and slowly got to his feet.

"Dad, give'er to me before you fall on your face."

"I'm fine." He was not. "I've got her." Which he did. In a death grip. "Go see to the Princess."

"You are not fine. You're shaking and you're hallucinating."

"Who's hurt?"

Jeb whipped around. Cain thought it was a shame that he was too cold to enjoy the look of shock on his boy's face even as he wondered where in the OZ the Princess Azkadellia had come from in the first place.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Throwing a quick glance back at his father, who was still holding the girl and still moving under his own power, Jeb stormed towards Princess Azkadellia. "Highness…what are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"Who's in trouble?"

"Who's in—?" Then he remembered. DG's dragonfly. "Princess DG's charm brought you here?"

"_My_ charm brought me here."

"What charm?"

They both turned at Wyatt Cain's voice. He was disturbingly blue. "You're turning blue. Give her to me."

At least his father couldn't deny the orders of a Princess of the Realm.

"Princess Azkadelli—"

"Give me the child, Captain Cain. At least while you put on a coat." She eyed him critically. "Or perhaps a change of clothes?"

The look on his father's face was priceless, but the Princess had a point. He had to get out of his cold wet clothes before the cold really set in. He'd been in that water too long, in Jeb's personal opinion. Finaqua wasn't close and he had a feeling the princess' trick wouldn't work the other way. Magic seemed to be unhelpful like that.

"And you as well, Lieutenant Jeb Cain."

His father managed a stuttering laugh as Jeb's eyes flew to the princess'.

"You're not far from hypothermia yourself, Lt. Cain."

"What about her?"

"And neither of you can help her if you are soaking wet. She can wear my wrap until we get back to the castle." She took five steps toward his father, five steps in a floor-length dressing gown covered by a pale blue chenille wrapper. Five of the most regal steps Jeb Cain had ever been privileged to see. "Give her to me. I promise I will give her back."

OooOZzzZOooO

Azkadellia hurried away from both men as soon as she had the child—who was perhaps a bit too long of leg to truly be a child but it was hard to tell. As suspected, she was shivering uncontrollably. It had been impossible to tell while she was in Captain Cain's arms and he was shivering. Under the cover of the tree line she felt safe enough to disrobe the girl and then enfold her from neck to foot in the chenille wrap. It wasn't that she thought anything untoward would happen with either of the Cain men around, far from it, but it was not the modest thing to do. And they needed their own privacy.

The girl woke once while Azkadellia ran her hands along her covered body. She struggled briefly, but tired herself out even before Azkadellia could explain that she was safe. Luckily for them both the girl didn't seem to recognize her.

Picking the girl up with some difficulty now that the worst was over, she went to stand near the horses, which had wandered a small distance away from where she'd landed face first into thin grass, her hand wrapped around the small dragonfly pendant she had originally given to her sister. Lt. Cain found them first. "Is she all right?" he asked, coming abreast.

"I'm not sure. She's still breathing. I took off her wet clothes. And she woke up for a moment." She could hear the uncertainty creeping into her voice. But, then, she wasn't sure.

"You got her good and wrapped up."

"Should I put her in my dressing gown as well?"

Jeb looked up from the girl to the princess. "It's a consideration. We'll see what my father says."

"What I say about what? I'll take her, Princess."

Azkadellia's eyes caught Captain Cain's as he took the girl from her arms. She sighed in relief. "Her. If she's warm enough in just the wrap," she answered softly. "I was going to put her in my dressing gown if you didn't think so."

"Then what are you gonna wear? It's still early, Princess, and it's a long way to the palace. Somehow I don't think your parents or sister will much appreciate it if the Captain and a Lieutenant of the Personal Guard makes it back to the palace in one piece, but the princess they're supposed to protect ends up sick as a dog."

"I see." Azkadellia was sure that he hadn't meant it as a rebuke, but it felt like one nonetheless. She stiffened her spine and tried to ignore the sting. "At least we'll run into the group DG will send."

The Cain men shared a pregnant look until Captain Cain turned away, shifting the girl in his arms, and his son went to collect the horses.

"What's wrong?"

"Tell me how Princess DG might know something's wrong."

"Forgive me, Captain, for the seeming juvenile nature of my statement, but I believe I asked you first." She was a princess of the realm and he was a captain. What she asked got answered first, so there. "What is wrong?"

He looked like he wanted to do something with his hands, but they were full of the girl. "If DG thinks that you're in trouble, she's not gonna send a rescue party, Highness, she's going to come herself."

Azkadellia clenched her teeth. He was right. What had she been thinking, demanding that DG give her the pewter horse charm?

"Princess?"

She had the impression that this wasn't the first time the elder Cain had said her name. "I have her horse," she said with quiet resignation. "I have her horse and that is how she will find us."

"Horse? Us?"

"A horse charm." She pulled it out of her deep pockets, briefly holding it out in the palm of her hand before putting it away. "She knows that you're in trouble. Lieutenant Cain had my dragonfly."

"Your dragonfly? DG gave that to him."

"So I am made to understand. I made that charm, DG charmed a pewter horse. She confused them."

"Any way to turn it off?"

"It hardly matters, Captain. She was in the room when the magic brought me here. DG was going to come whether she had the charm or not."

"Are we going to ride some time today or not?"

They both turned to Lt. Cain, holding the reins of the horses. "You can always argue on horseback. I've done it. The arguing's just as good."

Azkadellia swallowed a smile as she picked up her skirts and began to walk away from a glowering Captain Cain.

"Azkadellia!"

She stopped short.

"Princess." She waited for Captain Cain to catch up. "You're barefoot."

"Yes. I am."

"Why didn't you say something before?" He was giving her a look that she had heretofore thought was reserved exclusively for her sister.

Arching her brow, she said, "And what would you have done, Captain Cain? You were soaked to the skin and, presumably, have only one change of clothes."

"One of us could have done without socks for a few hours."

"I'm fine."

"Like he—" He bit back whatever he was going to say with some difficulty, turning instead to his son. "Jeb, check your pack for a pair of dry socks. The Princess seems to be lacking in footwear," he said as he stalked off toward his own horse.

Azkadellia followed hot on his heels. "I am a princess."

"And I am in charge of guarding your person. That grass is sparse, Princess. I don't care to have to explain to DG why you're feet are cut up."

"What if—"

"If Jeb doesn't have socks we will find something, cut it up and wrap it around your feet," he said, anger so palpable that his horse skittered sideways. He turned to calm the large animal. "Jeb!" he called over its back.

Azkadellia waited patiently for him to turn around, but it seemed he was much better at waiting than she was because she broke the silence first: "You're going to need my help if you want to mount."

"Jeb will help me."

"I believe you have him looking for dry socks."

She thought she heard him mutter something that sounded like, _"Glinda the Good…it runs in the family."_ But with more care than she would have thought he could have managed in his emotional state, he turned around and gently passed the child to her. As soon as he was mounted, he bent down to take her back.

Aware of a presence at her side, Azkadellia cut her eyes to see Lt. Cain ready to help her pass the child to his father. His lips twitched in the approximation of a smile as he acted as a bridge between them. Together the men rearranged the wrapper around the child and made sure she was safely situated in front of Captain Cain.

"All right, Highness, you're with me."

She thought of protesting. Now that she'd gotten into an argument with Captain Cain, even if it was a very minor one, she could feel heat under her skin. Her fingertips tingled with it. Her body hummed. This was a taste of what it was like not to be cold.

But the child needed to be seen to. Her family needed to be found, although, if her memory served of the area served, there were no towns in the vicinity. Where had the child wandered from? Was she alone? Questions continued to chase each other as she silently followed Lt. Cain to his mount.

"Highness." His voice shook her out of her thoughts. "I'll help you mount."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Sitting atop the horse she watched him scurry away. "Where is he going?"

Attention on the child in his lap, Captain Cain shrugged.

"Just getting the girl's clothes, Highness," Lt. Cain answered as he sprinted back into the clearing. He stuffed them in his saddle bag then pulled out a hunter green ball. "And here are your socks. If you'll just sit still…"

To her shock, although she supposed she should have expected it, he took her left foot in one hand rolled one of the thick woolen socks onto her foot. She bit back a hiss of pain. Glancing down, her eyes caught the lieutenant's. His father hadn't noticed, but he could see her feet. He knew that she had cut them on the hard ground though she didn't think they were yet bleeding. Walking around his horse she watched him study the sock in his hand. His attention to her right foot was more careful, but the wool was still not silk.

When she looked up she saw that Captain Cain's sharp eyes were on them. "Ready?"

Jeb mounted in front of her. Azkadellia looped an arm around his waist. "Is that alright?"

He shifted her arm a bit, presumably to a more comfortable position then nodded. "Ready."

"Let's go."

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

They were slowed by their burdens: the inadequately dressed princess and the awkward bundle the girl made in Cain's arms. And if Cain would admit the truth, even to himself, they were being slowed down because his muscles were less and less under his control. It was all he could do to keep an arm on the girl and his fist wrapped around the reins. His thighs trembled as he tried to control the horse under him and his breath was all hitched up in his chest. He'd been in that water too long and he knew it. The cold was down in his bones and unless they rode up on the summer palace soon he wasn't gonna be of much use to anyone.

Cain swore softly under his breath.

He saw a flash of blue eyes.

"Dad!"

Cain's head shot up, his fists tightening on the reins as his horse tried to dance them into a tree on the less than friendly road.

"We're stopping," Jeb said as soon as he had the animal under control.

Cain bristled but reined in his annoyance. "We need to get back to Finaqua."

He could see his son struggling with his own emotions. Cain had watched Jeb skillfully stand up to plenty of men who thought they had it on him in age and experience with more skill than a kid his age should have. Apparently only he was able to push his son's buttons in just the right way. It wasn't exactly the honor he'd wanted to have as a father.

Bringing his horse alongside his father's, Jeb said in a low voice, "Look, _sir_, you can barely keep control of your horse. You have a kid riding with you and you're responsible for the princess riding with me. I know you said there'd be no appreciation if we made it back alright and Princess Azkadellia didn't, but I'm pretty sure DG would skin me alive if I let your stubbornness get you killed. Sir."

They'd spent the last three days being "Dad" and "Jeb." The "sir" was all Wyatt Cain needed to know it was serious. Sighing, he relented. He looked down at the girl lying across his lap. Though the princess had wrapped her up right good—she looked more like a bug's cocoon than a little girl—she was still pale and a little blue around the edges.

"All right, we'll stop. But not for too long or this little one's gonna suffer."

"Give her to me," Princess Azkadellia said.

Jeb glanced at her from over his shoulder. "Let me dismount first, Your Highness."

She grimaced as he said it, and Cain briefly remembered how, in those first few months after, she'd tried to get folks to stop using her title and the royal honorifics that came with it. No one had paid her much mind so she'd quickly given up on it. Clearly she hadn't gotten used to it.

Cain started at the hand on his lower leg. He looked down at his son. "I'm gonna tell you the truth, Dad, and it's not pretty. I don't want to see this girl hurt any more than she probably already has been…but if its you or her? I'm not losing you again." He backed away from the horse, stalking off into the woods.

Cain's eyes shot from his son's retreating back to the princess still sitting his horse. If she'd heard him, she gave no indication. He urged his horse closer to her so they could make the exchange more smoothly. "Think you can manage it, Highness?"

She seemed to consider it for a moment. If they couldn't they were going to have to wait for Jeb to come back. Then: "Yes. I think so. I don't remember her being very heavy."

"Just awkward."

Princess Azkadellia nodded then urged her mount closer still. The two of them sat facing each other, glancing from their horses to their arms to the girl as they tried to figure out how to move her without prompting the horses to shy.

"We could wait for Lieutenant Cain."

"I think we can manage," Cain replied slowly. He thought they could, but he wasn't sure. "Look, if I grab Helter's reins I think you'll be okay to take her."

The princess' face lit from the inside as a slow smile cautiously worked its way up her face. "The horse's name is Helter? Dare I ask you what yours is called?"

"Skelter of course."

For a moment pure amusement broke along the Princess Azkadellia's face. Cain thought it was the first time he had ever seen her so unguarded and he couldn't help an answering smile of his own. Shaking his head, he reached for the horse's reins—then jerked violently.

"Captain Cain!"

"I'm fine, Your Highness. Just need to get off this horse," he muttered. He grabbed Helter's reins. "Alright, whenever you're ready, Princess."

Azkadellia reached across and pulled the girl from his lap onto her own. The girl made a sound, a good thing, Cain thought, but otherwise remained unconscious, which wasn't good. "Got her?"

"Yes, Captain."

He released the horse. Jeb walked back onto the road. "There's a clearing about twenty paces this way. We can set up camp for a couple of hours. See about getting you two warmed up."


	2. Under Lake, Over Stone

Chapter 2: Under Lake, Over Stone 

Jeb wrapped his hands around the reins to the princess' horse and led the way to the clearing. He actually agreed with his father. He wanted to get off the dim, heavily-forested road and back into the open fields of Finaqua. The princess needed better clothing, the little one needed seeing to and his father was just about in the same boat, but he was a whole lot more stubborn.

Taking Helter's slack reins, Jeb led the princess through the woods to the clearing, sure that his father would follow. One of the things he appreciated about working with his father, heck the only reason why he'd done it instead of going into the Academy or joining a border patrol, was that the man listened to good advice. He didn't care if it came from one of his old Tin Man buddies, Ahamo or a stable hand. Or even his estranged son. If he thought you knew what you were talking about, he was willing to go with you. So they might fight and, sure, the old man knew how to push his buttons, but when it came down to it Jeb knew that his father heard him and thought on what he'd said. You didn't have to prove yourself but once to Wyatt Cain. Sometimes, though, Jeb wondered if that meant you only had to fail him once, too. So far there wasn't evidence of it, but…eight years was a long time.

"This it?" Cain asked as he trotted Skelter out from behind the princess and the little one, fully entering the clearing.

"Yup. This is it. Looks like it's been used in the past."

"And not too long ago."

"Not by the looks of it," Jeb agreed. He went to Princess Azkadellia's side. "If I take her, can you get down by yourself or do you want to wait for my father?"

There had been a light in her eyes while she was fighting with his father—a brighter one when he came back from the clearing and found her holding the little one. The short side trip had killed it and she was back to being her serene self. "I believe I can manage, Lieutenant. Thank you for your assistance."

The Princess Azkadellia wasn't so bad. Once you got over associating her face with the Sorceress. It helped that she was about as far from being Sorceress-like as it was possible and still have the same face. She had her moments, though, and they made him want to ask her what it was like to be stuck inside yourself. Then he'd think of the little bit of time he'd been stuck in the suit and knew he wouldn't. If the princess wasn't up for sharing, Jeb Cain wasn't up for prying.

He gave her a brief smile as he reached for the girl. "Haven't done much assisting yet, Highness."

"There were the socks."

"Dad asked me to find them."

"He didn't ask you to dress my feet."

He just shrugged. What else would he have done? Once he had the girl—who had to be all legs—he watched as the princess carefully swung a leg over Helter's back.

A loud curse cut the air. The princess hung in her seat. Jeb swung around. "Dad!"

"I'm fine."

"No you're not," he muttered, rushing to his father—on the ground beside his horse.

The Princess beat him there. Face drawn, she hovered over his father looking like she wasn't sure whether she should step back and wait for Jeb or bend down and do something herself.

His father wasn't liking the attention. "I said I'm fine. My legs're just stiff from the ride."

A tense silence filled the clearing. His father was the Captain in the Royal Army, head of the Personal Guard, a former Tin Man and a Rebel. They needed to get a fire going. Jeb shifted the girl in his arms.

"You are not fine, Captain Cain." Princess Azkadellia dropped to one knee beside his father. "You were a Tin Man and a Rebel. What kind of Rebel can't sit his for two hours, dismount and then battle the Sorceress' Longcoats for another two?"

He snorted. "A dead one."

"You look alive to me."

"Not at the rate you two are going," Jeb cut in. "Highness, if you'll take the girl I'll get a fire going."

"That…that may not be necessary."

Jeb and his father shared a look between them, and then at the princess. Not a few people thought the princess was touched in the head. For the first time Jeb was ready to believe there might be something to that. "Princess—"

"I know I sound…foolish. But at the very least I can determine— That is I think Captain Cain's problems can not be solved with a simple fire. If the lake where you found this child is where I think it is then no natural fire will warm you, Captain. Or the child."

"Magic?" the Cain men said together.

The princess gave them an unhappy nod. "Affected by the witch's long presence in the caves nearby. The land began to take on her wickedness," she added in a whisper. She was looking at his father's feet.

Jeb shifted the girl again. "Well that explains some of it."

"What do you mean?" his father asked.

"When you jumped in that water it was like…like it just ate you up. If I hadn't seen you swim out for her or if your head hadn't popped up, I would have sworn that you'd never gone in there at all."

"Same thing happened with the girl. I saw her fall and then, gone. Like she wasn't even there."

The princess nodded.

"And you can do something about this?"

Jeb's eyebrows rose. "That mean you're not fine?"

The elder Cain rolled his eyes. Jeb smirked. They did a lot of sniping at each other. Sometimes he didn't think it was a bad thing.

"Anything you can do, Highness, would be much appreciated."

"I…"

She didn't move a muscle, but Jeb could see the princess retreating into herself. From strong-willed and sure, to weak and lost—it was another way she'd set herself apart from the Sorceress, though he had serious doubts that it was on purpose. One minute she was staunchly refusing some plan or program the Queen had in mind, the next she was a deer frightened by the sound of a twig snapping. "Are Dad and the girl gonna die if you don't do this? Whatever it is?"

The princess nodded jerkily, the ends of her night braid doing a dance across her back. "Me or DG or Mother. Maybe Tutor."

"Dad, you got a problem with the Princess working some mojo on you?"

Actually Jeb thought he might, but he didn't think his father would let that stop him, especially not with an audience, especially since he seemed to have set his cap of protection on the little one.

"None t'all."

"And she doesn't care," Jeb said, raising the girl slightly. "If you don't tell her, I won't." He'd meant it to be funny. Nothing moved in the clearing.

"Jeb."

He inwardly sighed with relief.

"Bring the girl over. Might as well ki—Get this all done at once."

Nodding, he carefully set the girl in his father's lap. Between the three of them, his father, the girl all wrapped up and on his lap, and the princess crouching by him, they were quite a little crowd. Jeb saw that the princess had gotten his father propped up with something while he wasn't looking, or maybe Wyatt Cain had done it himself. Still, Jeb went and found one of the horses, Helter again, and made him to kneel behind the elder Cain while the princess went to work.

By the time he'd gotten the saddlebags off, Princess Azkadellia was on the ground and had one of his father's pants legs rolled up to the knee. She glanced up under Jeb's questioning stare. "Just because I believe magic is involved doesn't mean that he hasn't also hurt himself. You haven't also hurt yourself?" she added, flashing her eyes at his father.

"Told you, I'm fine."

Jeb snorted. "Uh huh." He'd heard the appreciative way the old man had let out that breath once he was able to lean back against Helter's well-worn saddle. He wasn't as old as all that, the suit had seen to that, but he wasn't a kid anymore either. "Sure."

His father was about to say something, had half twisted himself around to do it, too, when light flared around his leg drawing them both back to the princess. It wasn't quite bright enough to blind, but the world did seem a bit darker when it faded. Even the princess was blinking rapidly. "Nothing broken," she said softly, not quite speaking to either of them. "Although you may have pulled a muscle in the fall. A medic will be better able to say."

"And the heatin' up?" his father gently asked.

Jeb watched all the color, what little there was drain from Princess Azkadellia's face.

She nodded. "Yes. I—" She pushed her palms down her thighs. "I— For it to be most effective I need to touch you. Skin to skin. Preferably a pulse point."

Jeb was sure that his father had heard the unspoken question of whether he would mind her touch.

"Got a place in mind, Highness?"

"Your leg. There's a pulse point behind your knee. And your neck or wrist."

"All right."

Her eyes finally met his. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

His father gave her kind, if small, smile. He was starting to look tired to Jeb's eye. "Not in the least, Highness."

"All right," she said but more to herself than not. "I'll just…" And she trailed off as she pushed up his father's pant leg more, fully exposing his knee. She seemed to take on the professional air Jeb was used to from the field medics now that she was sure her offer to help wasn't going to be flat-out rejected. She found what she was looking for behind his knee then reached for his neck. And frowned. "You are unfortunately long, Captain Cain. Might I have your wrist instead?"

Rolling his eyes, his father offered the princess his arm, but pulled it back before she could take it. "You need to touch skin, right?" he said quickly before she could shrink away again.

"Yes."

"I don't know if I can undo these buttons with the kid in my lap. Jeb can—"

Jeb started to lean down when Princess Azkadellia removed her hand from behind his father's knee and reached for his wrist. She quickly and efficiently loosened the cuff and rolled it part way up his arms. Jeb thought he saw her hands tremble a bit, but couldn't be sure. She was moving so fast.

She grabbed his bare wrist then reached for his knee.

"Az! Az!"

All three of them looked up. They'd been concentrating so hard on his father, and him and his father concentrating so hard on not freaking out the princess, that they hadn't heard the muffled thunder of hooves in the surrounding forest. But there was no mistaking DG's voice.

_"Az!"_

OooOZzzZOooO

Azkadellia's eyes closed briefly in relief. She really hadn't wanted to do this but if the Cains could pretend not to mind, then she could pretend, too. But now with DG here…

"DG! We're here!" Az resisted the urge to stand. If nothing else she could at least impart some of her own body heat to Captain Cain. It wasn't much, not when she was perpetually cold herself, but DG's Tin Man was colder still.

She hadn't expected DG to find them so quickly, and from the look on the Cains' faces neither had they, but she was infinitely grateful that they had.

DG burst into the clearing followed closely by three others, their horses thoroughly winded. DG slid off her mount and sprinted toward them. "What happened to Cain?"

"Oh you know him, Princess," Jeb began. "Saw a damsel in distress and had to help."

She glanced at Lt. Cain then down at his father. "Az? I thought you were going to rescue them?"

Captain Cain coughed—which Azkadellia wasn't entirely certain was affected.

"Captain Cain was hurt while rescuing this child from drowning," she broke in before the elder Cain could speak, "but now it would appear that he needs our help?"

"Our help?"

"Yes, this will go better if you do it." Azkadellia ignored the look shared between father and son. It would. They just didn't know it yet.

DG dropped to her knees beside them. "What do I do?"

"Move to Captain Cain's other side, to start." She removed her own hand from Cain's knee. "You'll need to open the captain's shirt a little more."

"Az?"

"Highness?"

Captain Cain's surprise was sharper than her sister's, but she ignored them both. She knew what she was doing, theoretically at least, and this was the fastest and most efficient way of warming the cold that was even now seeping further into Captain Cain's body. "This may be a little awkward Deeg, but you're going to have to put one hand on Captain Cain's neck, over the artery there, and the other on his chest, over his heart."

"And I have to open his shirt to do that?" Her incredulity was palpable.

"Your sister says it's gotta be skin-to-skin, kiddo," Cain said softly.

Shaking her head, presumably at the vagaries of magic, DG did as she was asked. "Like this? Jeez louise, Cain, you're cold," she muttered.

Azkadellia studied the picture her sister and their chief protector made: a compromising one, for sure, if not for the five witnesses and their dire straits. It couldn't be helped. "Actually, if you could move… No, leave your left hand where it is, but move your right hand to the far side of his neck. I think we'll get the blood coming and going that way."

"Huh?" came from three sides. She ignored them.

"All right. Now DG…I want you to close your eyes. Picture the warmth of the suns pooled in your hands. Have you got it?"

"Yes." And, indeed, DG's hands had begun to glow with a faintly yellow light.

"Good. Now slowly, very slowly, push it into Captain Cain. Into the blood you feel pumping under your palms."

There was no visual way of knowing whether it was working or not, although the captain did frown. "A little more strongly, Deeg, but be careful to monitor your progress. You don't want to boil the good captain's blood in his veins."

DG's eyes snapped open and met Azkadellia's. "I could really do that?"

"Yes."

"That's kinda cool."

"Hey!"

She looked down at Captain Cain. "I'm not saying I would, just that the potential—"

"Deeg," Azkadellia said, gently drawing her sister's attention back to the task at hand and away from the terrible knowledge her older sister wished she didn't know.

"Right, right. More heat, less talking, no boiling. Got it."

Azkadellia watched DG and Captain Cain, monitoring his progress as best as she could with just her eyes. When the captain began to relax under the gentle and persistent heat from DG's hands, Azkadellia pushed his rolled up shirtsleeve above his elbow. Captain Cain spared her a look. "With DG here, we can do this more efficiently," she explained. "While DG warms your blood I will send heat into your bones. Otherwise what DG is doing now won't last and you will find yourself in this same predicament a few hours from now."

"Were you talking to me?" DG asked, her voice distant.

"No, dear one." Azkadellia smiled, softly. This was probably one of the most delicate workings her sister had done. Tutor would be proud, she thought, as she cupped Captain Cain's elbow in one hand and placed another over his knee. Hands glowing with the same yellowish light, she pushed heat down into his very bones.

A memory pulled itself from the recesses of her mind. A memory of a hand, her hand, on someone's forehead. Of an expression somewhere between a smile and a sneer twisting her face. Of heat, inexorable heat, pushed mercilessly through the thin skin over fine eyebrows. A woman then. But Azkadellia couldn't remember the face, though she remembered that she had purposely positioned them in front of a mirror so that she could see the face of her victim as she suffered. Her victim. Back when her victims were personal, tortured and murdered at her own hand. The heat racing through the living bones, scorching them, burning them. Shattering them within the body.

Captain Cain jerked, dislodging her hand from his knee and shifting DG's hand over his heart.

"Sorry!" "I'm sorry!" Both princesses apologized at once. But Azkadellia knew that it was unlikely that DG had done any wrong. Yet and still the light faded from their hands as they removed them.

"I'm—" Captain Cain coughed. "I'm good. I'm great. Actually, I think I might be sweating."

Grinning, DG swooped in and enveloped him in a hug as Azkadellia sat back on her haunches. She flinched from the hand suddenly on her shoulder. It was Lieutenant Cain. "Want some help up?"

Nodding, she took his proffered hand.

"Hey, Kid, watch the kid," Captain Cain grumped as he grasped DG around her waist and levered her away from the child still in his lap.

If ever Azkadellia was likely to swear, it was probably that moment. "I forgot all about the girl."

DG looked at her sister. "Right! The damsel in distress. She needs a warm-me-up, too?"

"Yes," she and both Cains answered.

"All right! Let's get to it!"

Azkadellia shook her head. "Just one of us, DG. Two of us would be too much. You see what happened with Captain Cain." While it was true that two of them was much more than the child needed, she knew perfectly well that what had happened with Captain Cain had nothing to do with the two of them working simultaneously.

"Okey dokey. Gonna talk me through it again or are you gonna do it yourself?"

"I…" It would be safer for DG to do it, especially if she had another lapse but DG wasn't as skilled and— "I'll do it. But I want you to keep your hand on my back and monitor our progress. Grab my wrists and pull my hands away if you think there might be an overload."

Instead of protesting as she thought her sister might do, DG gave her a short solemn nod. Azkadellia kneeled again, settling herself by Captain Cain's side, and let him place the girl in her lap. Pushing back the damp, sky blue wrapper revealed dark hair that would either prove to be a light brown or a dark blond, much like Lt. Cain's, she thought. The rest of her was pale and blue-tinged, much more blue-tinged than the captain had been. Azkadellia hastily undid more of the wrap until the girl's narrow chest was exposed. She carefully placed one hand over her heart and the other along her neck, cradling her in that awkward position, as her thumb stroked the girl's jaw. Closing her eyes she felt the power gather in her hands, then she gently, so gently, pressed it into the girl's flesh, into her veins, into the bone beneath her thumb. She felt a tendril of power on her back, over her own heart.

Working ever so much more carefully with the girl than she had with the captain, much to her regret, it felt like hours before she felt someone pulling her back and the girl being taken away.

"Az…Az are you all right?"

Azkadellia opened her eyes. For a moment her vision was filled with blue and white and black fringe, a vision that made no sense, until her brain began to filter to visual message. Eyes, irises, eyelashes. DG. Hot hands on her cheeks and cold air surrounding her on all sides. Not all sides. There was warmth at her back. That didn't make any sense.

"DG?"

She smiled. "Hey there, sister of mine. You were starting to worry me there. You were starting to look a little loopy in the eye."

"Who's standing behind me?"

"I am, Your Highness," Lieutenant Cain answered.

"Why?"

DG's eyes went up to meet the ones behind her.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time?"

Azkadellia turned her head, looking around for Captain Cain and his charge.

"They're mounted," DG said. "We were just waiting for you."

"Waiting for me? Why?"

DG gnawed on her lower lip.

"To come to, Highness," Lt. Cain answered succinctly. "Want some help up?"

She nodded. Azkadellia glanced up at the sky as he came around. Both he and DG pulled her to her feet. Both suns were up. Only one had been when they had entered the clearing.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"Sir, sir, we'll take the girl."

Cain turned, looking over the heads of the staff that had surrounded him, making sure that everyone he had expected to be in the infirmary with him – Jeb, Princess Azkadellia, and DG.

"Sir. We can take her."

There was no way they'd shake DG loose now that she had joined their party. He expected that Raw and Ambrose would be down soon to check on them.

"Sir—"

"Dad!"

Cain turned around, bringing his full attention to bear on Jeb. "What is it?"

"The nice medics would like to have a look at the kid."

Cain blinked, really seeing the medical staff around him for the first time. He looked down at the child in his arms and admitted to himself that he was reluctant to let her go. After all the trouble he'd gone through to get her out of that cursed water…

He felt a small hand on his arm. He looked into DG's bright blue eyes. "I don't think they're gonna eat her, Cain."

He snorted. "That's what you say." But he was already in the process of transferring the girl into waiting arms.

Who was immediately swallowed up by medics. Cain craned his neck, trying to see around the sea of blue and white coats. The filtered light from overhead wasn't helping at all. While the sunlight through the lake water was pretty, real pretty in fact, it did tend to give the infirmary an odd effect. It was why serious procedures were done in one of the adjacent converted storage rooms. With a little help the shifting light was bright enough for regular work and for the folks who were laid up, but too inconsistent for just about anything else.

Another medic, an actual doctor, Cain thought, appeared behind the girl who had taken his girl. The little one. "All right, Captain Cain, if you'll just come with me…"

Cain frowned. "I'm fine."

"He should be," Princess Azkadellia said, making them all start at her sudden presence by Cain's elbow.

The doctor inclined his head to the princess and was about to say something when she continued: "But it's only right that you examine him."

"Thank you, Highness. I'm glad to hear you say that because I want to examine you, too."

The princess didn't gasp, but Cain thought he might have felt her try to back away. Unfortunately she was now standing between both Cains, with the doctor and, a surprisingly silent, DG helping to ring her in. If he and Jeb took a couple of steps back she'd be caught in the center of them.

Cain moved to stand at her side. "Shouldn't be too bad, Highness. I'm sure it's just your feet that need seeing to," he added, tossing a look at the doc.

He nodded. "Although I would like to give you a complete physical just to make sure. Nothing too invasive, and thus not particularly time consuming. Your feet on the other hand…" He trailed off as he glanced down at Princess Azkadellia's sock-covered toes.

To her credit, the princess neither fidgeted nor flinched under the man's scrutiny. He looked up at them all, since DG had moved over to Cain's other side. "And you, Lieutenant Cain. You will also need seeing to."

"By us," Princess Azkadellia said quickly, looking around Cain to catch her sister's eye.

DG's eyes widened. "Really? Jeb you were in the water, too?"

He scrubbed the lower part of his face. "Yeah. Almost forgot about that what with Dad and the kid having so much trouble. I feel fine though."

Princess Azkadellia frowned as she turned her head to look at him. "Were you not in the water long?"

"Just long enough to swim out to Dad and help him bring the girl back in."

"So the effects will be slower acting on you. Hmm. I'm guessing that by this time tomorrow you'll be in worse straits than Captain Cain was before DG and I were able to help him."

"And you didn't see fit to say anything?" The words were out of Cain's mouth before even realized they were in his head.

He could feel the princess on his left shrink while the one on his right seemed to swell. DG hit him. "Cain!"

"It's the truth. She could have said something."

"You didn't have to say it like that!"

"I didn't say it 'like that.' I thought I was calm and reasonable."

"Which for you is saying it 'like that'!"

"DG." The Princess Azkadellia's voice cut through their argument. "Mis—Captain Cain is right. I should have said something."

And something about the way she said it, smoothly fitting it between the last thing DG'd said and the next thing he was gonna say, arrested his attention. If DG had the ability to make him lose his composure, her sister had the ability to throw a bucket of cold water over both of them and remind them that they were adults. He had the niggling suspicion that that was, in fact, supposed to be his job.

Cain sighed. "No, it's DG that's right, Your Highness. It's not like me and Jeb are kids who don't know better. Either one of us could have spoken up…" A brief glance at his son over the princess' head confirmed that Jeb agreed with his personal opinion that he was being an idiot. "…but in all the excitement we plain old forgot about it. I'm sure it would have come up eventually."

"Right about when I was convulsing on the floor of the barracks," Jeb tossed in. "So where do you want me to sit?"

OooOZzzZOooO

DG tossed Cain a dirty look before she left him in the company of Doc Farris and joined Jeb and Azkadellia at the nearest bed. Jeb tossed her a smile as she took a seat next to him. "Y'know, sometimes your dad's a real pinhead."

"I'm not sure what that means, Princess, but I'm pretty sure I agree."

"Just trust me. So…" She turned to Princess Azkadellia and so Jeb did too, "Whaddaya want me to do? Same head-heart trick?"

The princess was silent for a moment as she studied Jeb. He did his best not to squirm… or bristle, which would have only been worse. It wasn't her fault that when she wasn't emoting she looked like the Sorceress. DG put a hand on his arm. "Don't worry. We won't let you freeze to death from the inside out."

"Gee. Thanks, Princess.

"You're welcome."

"That should work."

They both looked at the Princess Azkadellia. "Your hand. The way it is now… If you move it to his wrist and the other to his neck, over the vein, then that should work."

DG said, "Are you sure?"

"I'd have to check the Lieutenant's vital signs now, to see what stage he, you're, in. I suppose one of the medical personnel here could do it."

"I can't do it?"

"If you had more medical or anatomy and physiology experience… Do you?"

Jeb looked at DG. "You don't do you?"

"I can birth a calf and I'm pretty good at taking care of hogs, but people? Not so much."

"They probably aren't very dissimilar," the princess said with some hesitation.

He and DG shared a look. She had no idea. Finally Jeb just shrugged. "I don't care if you do it, Highness. If you don't want to that's fine."

"I—"

"You do it, Az. Then you can fix him up, too, since you'll know what's wrong." DG looked at him for confirmation.

"Seems logical to me."

Princess Azkadellia's mouth opened but she seemed to be at a loss for what to say. Jeb was about to signal for one of the doctors or medics to come around when DG spoke up: "C'mon Az, if you can do it, you should. Jeb's not gonna bite you. And if he does, I'll crack his jaw."

Jeb turned to DG. "Gee. Thanks again. How did my father survive a week with you again?"

She shrugged. "Not really sure."

When he looked at Princess Azkadellia, she was smiling. That was a plus at least.

It wasn't until he felt lush warmth flow through his veins, like the first winding spring breeze after a winter of fighting in the mud, soft and almost touchable, that he remembered that Princess Azkadellia had nearly passed out after helping the little one. He put a hand over the one she had on his neck to stop her, pull her away and have DG do it instead, only to find he'd created a new source of warmth. _Yeah that was real stupid of me._

"DG."

He didn't know which one of them said it. It had to have been the princess, though, to sound so distressed, but it sounded so far away…maybe it was him.

"Whoa there you two crazy energy swapping kids."

Someone, it must have been DG, pulled Princess Azkadellia's hands off his body but the soft rush of warmth remained. Well that explained the dopey look on his dad's face after the princesses were done manhandling him. "Wow."

Smirking, DG said, "Feel better?"

"Amazing. I didn't know I was feeling bad in the first place."

"We do what we can. Or Az does anyway," she added, her smirk blossoming into a full smile. "Hey Az, ya done—Az?"

Jeb's head whipped around as Princess Azkadellia swayed on her feet. He and DG jumped up and grabbed her, DG swearing softly under her breath. "I shouldn't have let her…I knew that last one wore her out. Stupid."

Keeping an eye out for any of the medical staff that might happen to look their way, Jeb helped DG lower her sister to the bed. Someone finally caught his eye and detached himself from the group. "What happened?"

"I let Az do too much," DG told the doctor. It sounded a whole lot like a confession the way she said it.

The doctor, an older, white-haired man who didn't actually have too much on top, got up close and crouched down in front of the princess between them. "Oh if I know Princess Az I'd say she'd have pushed herself too hard no matter what you did or didn't have to say about it."

"You know my sister?"

His attention shifted briefly onto DG. "Yes, Highness, I do. And you too, though not as long, seeing as how you're younger."

"You were attached to the royal family?"

"I was your pediatrician."

"That is so cool. And weird."

He gave her a brief little smile but brought his attention back to the Princess Azkadellia. He took her hands between his and gave them a brisk rub up. "Come on, Princess Az. I know you overextended yourself but you never let that get you down before."

As if she could hear him, the princess began to stir. DG threw an arm around her. "Az?"

"DG?"

"There you are, Princess Az."

She blinked several times in a row. If her hands weren't stuck on one side by her sister and on the other by the old man, Jeb thought she'd be rubbing her eyes with them. Jeb would've done it for her, maybe, except he was more likely to poke an eye out and they already had enough problems.

"How are you feeling, my girl?"

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"Doctor Henry?"

The elderly doctor smiled up at her. "There's my Princess Az."

"Doctor Henry? I thought… I, I could have sworn—"

"That I was dead?" He chuckled and smiled up at her warmly. "Not like the Sorceress didn't try, my girl, but you wouldn't have none of it. Several times she wanted to have me executed and several time she—" He snapped his fingers. "—poof, changed her mind. I knew my princess. I knew she was in there somewhere. Eventually I escaped to the Realm of the Unwanted."

Tears burned her eyes and clogged her sinuses. She didn't want to cry, not in front of so many, but it was like someone coming back from the dead.

"But I sent my Longcoats after you."

Doctor Henry patted her hand. "Not you, my girl, her."

Azkadellia shook her head. "No…" she whispered, forgetting that her sister and Lt. Cain were sitting beside her. The words were just for her childhood doctor. "It was me."

"Maybe that's what she got you to believe, and maybe some days it's how you felt, but if there wasn't some difference between you and she then there's no way your sister here could've gotten your help to defeat the Witch."

A terrible rushing filled her head. The tears wouldn't come now, they were all blocked up behind her sinus cavity. She needed to blow her nose. She needed to cover her head. She needed to be held.

All things she didn't deserve.

Somehow Doctor Henry seemed to know. He always had. "Don't worry, these things will come with time," he said patting her hand. He pushed himself up and winced. Time had been kinder to him than most, but time had not passed him by. "But for right now, Your Highness, you need your rest. Your uninterrupted rest. Might as well stay here."

"But—"

"No 'buts,' Highness. Only person higher than the Queen is her physician, and I'm yours. I'll have one of these nurses take a peek at your feet—heard you went wandering around the woods without your shoes on. Been a long time since you've done that. Afterwards, it's lights out for you for at least twelve hours. Maybe more. Depends on how much magic you've expended."

"But Doc Henry…"

Even Azkadellia was surprised by the childish wheedle in her voice.

It only made the old man smile. He gestured to DG and Lt. Cain. "Come on, you two. She's safe enough here."

DG bit her lower lip. "Are you sure?"

"Your Highness, if I may be so bold? She's under the castle, under a lake. Aren't too many places much safer than this."

Jeb touched her elbow. "I'll make sure a guard's posted."

"Fine by me," Doctor Henry said with a shrug, "so long as he doesn't bother the princess."

Azkadellia thought it was unlikely, but kept her opinion to herself as she nodded. Lt. Cain left her to stand by DG who was talking to Doctor Henry. Azkadellia settled on the narrow bed. She idly thought that it could do with more, or perhaps better, pillows and made a note to bring it up to someone in the morning. Or perhaps afternoon. Azkadellia realized that she had no idea what the proper time was. Only three times of day could be determined by the shimmering, shifting light that filtered through the water covered dome over their heads: daybreak, noon, and day's end. The deep water over their heads thoroughly obscured anything else.

When Azkadellia looked up again DG and Lt. Cain were gone, presumably in search of either Captain Cain or the child. She could see Doctor Henry standing across the room, talking to three of the staff and all of them holding clipboards. She closed her eyes, steeling herself for the inevitable examination. Perhaps if it had been Doctor Henry it wouldn't… But no, that was wishful thinking. She'd given up on that long ago.

OooOZzzZOooO

Screaming woke her up. She was already so used to being awakened by her own screams.

Some of the staff had been jerked out of their own doings by it. There was a crowd gathering around the bed. The screams got more frantic.

She got up, tumbling out of the low bed ungracefully, unsteady on bandaged feet. They had been through so much, already, to save the little one. What could be attacking her now, deep under water, surrounded by the solid stone of the summer palace? The room had been cut out of the bedrock and the glass dome created by magic. It was crawling with medics, guards, soldiers and magic-wielders. If there was a safer place in the OZ, no one knew about it.

But the girl was lost, she was alone, she was frightened, and the crowd of unfamiliar faces was doing nothing to help it. It was full of reaching hands, a gaggle of voices that, though kind, were too much for a child who'd just about drowned only to just about die from hypothermia. It was too much, too soon. She didn't know anyone, she was too scared to understand what they were saying. At the rate they were going they were going to have a hyperventilation victim on their hands. But maybe that'd be best.

Then she saw someone she knew.

The Princess Azkadellia staggered backwards.

Cain stuck around long enough to make sure that the princess and the girl got settled—two narrow cots pushed together was the only way the girl'd let Princess Azkadellia go—before drifting back into the doorway. With the two of them together he felt safe enough leaving only one guard for them. "You're all set here, Tayborn?"

The broad-shouldered man, half a head taller than Cain himself, nodded. He was square and lean and had half the household staff trailing after him, but he was steady and reliable and had a good head on his shoulders. And he was quick on his feet. Those were the traits Cain cared about.


	3. Let Sleeping Princesses Lie

Chapter 3: Let Sleeping Princesses Lie

Azkadellia stared down at the girl clutching the skirts of her nightgown with nothing short of mute terror. She was mumbling something into the fabric and…crying.

The princess looked up at the staff with wide, questioning eyes. At least three nurses stepped forward, but she instinctively drew back. Weren't the strange faces the very reason the girl had run to her, of all people? "I—"

"Need a crowbar," came Doctor Henry's robust voice over the small crowd. "But short of that, I think you could just do with some space. Both of ya. Move back people," he said, pushing his way through. "If you're not assigned to either the princess or the child, I want you back."

The crowd dispersed quickly, leaving behind the young female medic who'd looked at Azkadellia's feet, Doctor Henry and two nurses. Az wondered briefly if the nearly complete female presence had been on purpose.

"Now where's a crowbar when you need one?"

Azkadellia smiled in spite of herself, one hand coming to rest on the girl's narrow shoulders. She looked up at the princess, blue eyes wet and wide. "You're safe now, little one."

"You won't let me go?" she asked in a whisper.

Azkadellia couldn't name the feeling that pushed through her chest, but held it close for later, private, examination. "Not if you don't want me to."

The girl buried her head back in Azkadellia's skirts.

"Princess, you were so close."

She gave the elderly doctor a look that said, quite clearly, what else was she supposed to have said.

"We have to get a better look at her, Princess."

Nodding, she began to peel the girl away from her person. It wasn't easy, but once the child could see that her protector wasn't throwing her to the wolves—merely regaining the use of her legs—she was willing to let go. But only of Azkadellia's waist. If she had been older, she would have crushed Azkadellia's hand and arm.

"Why hello there, young lady," Dr. Henry said gently as he crouched before the child. It was a softer tone, the princess thought, than any she had ever heard from him.

The girl backed into Azkadellia.

"You're looking much better now that you're awake. Are you feeling better?"

She looked up at Azkadellia. It took the princess a moment to realize that the child was silently asking her whether she should answer the white-haired doctor, or was perhaps wanting to know _how_ to answer him. "Are you feeling better, little one?"

She nodded.

"Tell that to, Doctor Henry."

"I'm feeling better, thank you."

Dr. Henry's eyes shot up to Azkadellia's. "No street urchin, this one. At least not to start with."

No, clearly not.

"Well I don't believe that we've been properly introduced. As the princess said, I am Doctor Henry Lodis, but you can call me Doctor Henry or Doctor Lodis or Doctor or even just plain Doc if that suits your fancy." He extended his hand to her. "And you might be…?"

The girl shrank back still further until her entire back, from thigh to skull, was pressed awkwardly against the princess, who found herself holding rigidly still to support the girl. She looked up at Azkadellia again.

"It's all right. He was my physician, doctor, when I was your age. And…I would like to know your name as well."

The girl didn't speak for so long, Azkadellia was afraid that she wouldn't answer at all. But Doctor Henry stayed, in what had to be an uncomfortable position, on the floor with his hand extended.

"Delia," the girl finally whispered. She stuck the thumb of her free hand in her mouth.

Doctor Henry dropped his hand and smiled. "Delia, what a lovely name. Are you named after someone? Maybe in your family?"

Azkadellia felt her heart clench.

The girl, Delia, nodded. "My grandmother. Delia McNault."

"Ah the McNaults!"

The death grip on Azkadellia's hand loosened. "You know my grandma?"

"Not personally, Miss Delia, but the McNaults used to be the best furriers in the kingdom."

Delia took a step away from Azkadellia's body as she gave Doctor Henry several deep nods.

"And your grandma married into the McNaults?"

"Yes, sir."

"And were you born a McNault, Miss Delia?"

"Yes, sir.

"Well then I am in the presence of greatness."

Delia giggled.

"Would your great self mind if my old self stood up and let some blood flow back into my lower limbs?"

She shook her head, twisting her whole body in a way that forcibly reminded Az of DG when she had been the same age.

Doctor Henry pushed himself up slowly, knees all but creaking. He groaned. "For the sake of my old bones, young lady, I hope to never have to do that again," he said with a grimace. "Now, Miss Delia, would you mind terribly if me and some of the staff took a look at you."

That put an end to her muffled giggles. Az could feel the girl inching back toward her skirts. She ran her thumb over the back of the girl's hand. "It's really all right. Doctor Henry wouldn't hurt you. Nor would any of the staff." She glanced from Delia to the other women, who all quickly nodded. "Remember I said that Doctor Henry was my—"

"Will you stay with me?"

"I—" Azkadellia looked down at the girl with naked surprise. "If you would like me to. Is that what you want?"

Delia nodded fervently, sending limp, dirty blond hair swinging in thick clumps. She needed to be seen to, and soon, Azkadellia thought with a distant part of her mind—the only part that still seemed to be functioning. "All right then. Doctor Henry?"

"Right. Ladies, can you manage to push them two beds together?"

There was a chorus of female agreement as the medic and two nurses conferred briefly then pushed an empty cot next to Azkadellia's bed closer. Sorting out the bedding took a little while longer and Delia looked on with a surprising amount of interest.

"Good! Excellent!" Doctor Henry said, favoring them all with a brilliant smile. "If I'd asked a couple of orderlies to do that they would have had to go back for reinforcements and wouldn't have even thought to fix the sheets. Love working with you ladies. And as for _you_, young lady in particular…"

Delia twisted on her feet, her right hand still firmly gripping Azkadellia's left.

"I think you promised me a checkup."

As she nodded Doctor Henry's eyes rose to meet Azkadellia's. He gestured toward the beds.

Oh.

"Come, Delia." The girl looked up at her. "Why don't we sit on the new bed so that it will be easier for Doctor Henry to have a look at you."

"Both of you."

"Both…of us?"

Delia giggled and Azkadellia shot her a an annoyed look. The similarities between her and young DG were becoming downright uncanny.

Shooing them toward the bed, Doctor Henry nodded. "Yup. The both of you. Helen," he said, half turning around, "could you bring me a— Oh you are just wonderful." He took the chair from her and brought it close to the bed, the princess and girl. "How did I get along without you?"

Smiling, the nurse rolled her eyes and took up her post again.

"Now as for you two," he started again but Azkadellia tuned him out when it became clear that he was talking to Delia.

Delia. Who in their right mind would give their daughter such a name in such a day and age? Clearly someone who wanted to honor their own ancestress. Azkadellia felt shame turn her cheeks red. The Zone and her people had managed to continue living despite her best attempts to make that all come to a grinding halt. The world and all those that dwelt in it did not revolve her, she reminded herself and not for the first time. What she had been through was so overwhelmingly personal that she often had to remind herself that it hadn't happened to her alone. The Witch had possessed the entire Outer Zone through her body. They had all suffered. And that they would all somehow recover was her other mantra.

She believed it less.

OooOZzzZOooO

Princess Azkadellia's eyes flashed open as she shrank away from his touch. "Mister—That is, Lieutenant Cain?"

"Yes, Highness," he said with a brief nod.

She looked down with no small amount of confusion. "Did I…fall asleep?"

"Yes, Highness."

"And Del—There she is."

Jeb's eyes flickered to the little girl's, watching him intently from the princess' other side. Her name was Del? What a weird name for a kid. He didn't ask the princess about it, though. "I'm here to take over for you, Highness."

"Pardon?"

"Watching…Del is it?"

Using Princess Azkadellia's side to give herself leverage, she pushed herself up and said, "My name is Delia McNault."

"The furriers?"

She nodded.

Jeb extended his hand, then hastily pulled it back when he realized he was about to shake hands with a child over the body of a princess of the realm. "Sorry 'bout that, Your Highness."

"No it's…it's fine."

"Can I shake hands with him?" the girl, Delia, asked.

"Can you…? Of course you can. If you would like to. Would you?"

"Yes, please."

Looking at him expectantly, she stretched one thin arm over Princess Azkadellia's torso. Throwing a quick glance at the princess, who seemed to be more fascinated with the little girl beside her than the protocol they were flouting, he reached across and shook the narrow hand. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Delia."

"And what's your name?"

"Woops! Forgot my manners. I'm Lieutenant Jebediah Cain, but you can call me Jeb."

"Okay, Mr. Jeb."

"Nah. Just Jeb's fine. I'm too young to be a mister. Save that for my dad."

Delia seemed to think about that for a minute before nodding her head. "Okay. You look kinda young to be a mister, too."

Not really sure how to take that, he turned his attention to the princess. Who's eyes were crinkled up like she wanted to laugh but not out loud. "So I'm your relief."

The laughter immediately went out of her face. "I'm sorry?"

"Remember I said I was here to take over for you? I'm going to watch little Miss Delia here while you go back to your rooms and get some proper rest."

"Oh, that's all right. I'm perfectly all right here with Delia."

"Doctors orders, Your Highness. When DG sent word that you were up early and hadn't eaten Doctor Henry ordered you up to your room."

She frowned. "And what would you have done if I hadn't awakened at your touch?"

"Have somebody carry you, most likely."

A real sour expression crossed her face. "I am not a sack of potatoes."

"No, Your Highness, you're not. Which, I figure, is the reason why Doc Henry wanted you to be in the comfort of your own rooms."

Jeb knew he had a reputation for being a smooth talker, but he didn't look like he was winning a whole lot of points with the princess. Still, she was a princess. He could almost see her saying it to herself as she squared her shoulders and sat up in bed.

She turned to Delia. "I have to leave you now. Will you be all right?"

The girl nodded, her dirty blond hair limp.

"Are you sure?"

Delia hesitated, then nodded again.

"Here," the princess said, reaching first behind her neck to get off her chain then in her pocket to thread something on it. She held up the finished product. It was the little dragonfly charm that had gotten her dragged into their little adventure swinging on the fine gold chain. "If you wear this I will always know if you are in trouble or if you need me and I will instantly come to your side."

About to put it over the kid's head, the princess hesitated. "That is if you want it of course."

The girl nodded so hard her dull hair seemed lively. Princess Azkadellia draped it over her head then arranged it so that it was on her skin, under her shirt. "Although I doubt you'll have need of it in the company of Lt. Cain or anywhere on the grounds."

"What if I get lost?"

"Just holler," Jeb suggested.

That got the princess to smile. "Yes, do that too. But I'll know and…I'll find a way to help you."

Delia nodded once, hard. "Okay." Then she stood on the bed and stretched her arms out towards Jeb.

Which he had not been expecting. Sending an apologetic look the princess' way, he went around to the other side of the narrow bed and picked Delia up. The girl had a vice-like grip around his arms and waist. He had a feeling that it wouldn't be a problem if he suddenly let her go because there was no way she'd be moving.

"Hines is on his way to escort you to your rooms, Highness," he told the princess.

Nodding, she thanked him.

"She looks tired," Delia said as they left the infirmary and started the up to the main level.

"Yeah, it's been a long day for the princess." But, now that he thought about it, the way she looked now—not including her muddied clothes and skin—was just about how she always looked these days. Jeb wondered if he should bring it up to DG or his dad first. "And you, Miss Delia, need a bath."

"No I don't!"

"Oh yes you do, kid. A lake, a horseback ride, a trip to the infirmary…? Bath for you."

She stuck her tongue out. Then giggled when he stuck his out, too.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Hines, Azkadellia thought, was following her more closely than usual.

Hines. She'd had his family killed early in her reign. Burned, if she remembered correctly. One of the dozen families living outside Mill Town that had refused the Sorceress and suffered for it. It was just him and an older sister now. They had been the youngest of six. They'd been moved around from town to town, relative to relative until they'd been old enough to join the Resistance. He'd survived the war to join the Royal Army. Cain had picked him out to join the Personal Guard a year ago. He'd been assigned to her regular detail three months ago.

Bad enough to be assigned to her, Azkadellia thought as he trailed after her to her rooms, but she'd recently become aware of her own stench.

And though it seemed she'd slept most of the afternoon, her bed was all that she craved. There'd be no going to bed smelling the way she was. She wouldn't do it to the maids if she could help it, and she could. She didn't think she had the strength to stand a shower, and taking a bath was likely too dangerous. There would be a lady-in-waiting there to help her with her clothes. She would help her mistress with her toiletries as well if Azkadellia wished her to, but she had just enough pride to make the idea an anathema. The Witch had rarely allowed themselves to be helped. Her magic had grown from the need for fine manipulation.

Maybe she should dismiss the poor woman. She was still in her nightdress and dressing gown, articles that Azkadellia could well handle on her own. The chenille wrapper was…gone. And she was absolutely rank. She'd been flung into the dirt, vicariously soaked by lake water, been on horseback for several hours and had not gotten around to doing more than the bare essentials before DG had returned with their impromptu breakfast. Only her feet, whispering along in the borrowed booties a nurse had placed on her before letting the princess go, were clean.

It was unfortunate that her feet were so far from her nose.


	4. Midnight in the Garden

Chapter 4: Midnight in the Garden

"Mr. Cain! Mr. Ca-ain!"

Frowning, Wyatt Cain turned away from the mounted exercises going on in front of him. "Jeb?" Now that didn't make sense. Since when did his son sound like—

"Look who I've got."

Cain's eyes darted down as a honey blond head popped up over the post railing and came to rest near Jeb's shoulder. The girl waved. Cain grinned as he realized who it must be and waved back. He turned back to indicate that everyone could take a breather then jogged over to the railing. "Well you sure are a sight, Kiddo."

She grinned back at him, mouth full of little girl teeth. "You look different, too."

Cain glanced at Jeb as he settled in to stand on the girl's other side. He put a foot up on the lowest rail. "That so? Why do you say that?"

She shrugged and he saw Jeb put a hand out to catch her. There was a lot of shoulder in the shrug. "I dunno. You just do."

"Less blue, probably," Jeb threw in.

"Mmm…"

Cain rolled his eyes. Jeb laughed.

The little girl looked between them both and rolled her eyes. That set both Cains laughing. "What's your name, Kiddo?" Cain asked her.

"Delia McNault."

"The furriers?"

She blushed. "Uh huh."

"I think I knew your mama."

Delia's eyes widened and her expression opened. "You did?"

"We did?"

Cain looked at his son. "Uh huh. It's before your time, Jeb, which is why you don't remember. We weren't real close or anything, and Diana was more Adora's friend than mine, but I remember when your father went courting your mother," he said, bringing the conversation to Delia.

"My mother's name wasn't Diana. I had an Aunt Diana, though."

Cain frowned. "You're not… You couldn't be Deirdre's little girl?"

She nodded hard. "And my daddy's name was—"

"Gilford?"

She nodded again.

"Wouldn't that make you a Zimmer?"

The spark of animation left the girl. A pang went through Cain as he realized that some of her wide-eyed wonder had to come from not having heard any of his stories for herself. He had already guessed what she was going to say before she said in a small voice, "My daddy died before him and Mama could get married."

"And your Mama?"

He knew that answer, too, and he could tell she'd known what he was going to ask. It didn't seem right that a girl her age should be prepared to answer questions like his. But that was life in the OZ. Cain wondered if Jeb had been the same way after he and Adora were gone.

Delia's eyes, a dark, hazy blue that reminded Cain of his son more than the awkward situation, dropped to the wooden railing under he hands. "No, sir."

"I'm sorry, Kiddo."

"It's alright."

"No it's not. It's not right at all." He sighed, pulled off his hat to wipe his head then jammed it back in place. "So who were you staying with when you got lost? I don't remember Gilly having any sibs, and your mother and auntie had a brother but he died when your mama was about your age." He looked up from the railing, over young Delia's head, to his son who was being uncharacteristically quiet. "Know anything about the McNault clan?"

Jeb shook his head. Grimness was just around the edge of his lips, his eyes, and Cain thought his boy would actually be frowning if it weren't for little Miss Delia standing between them. Maybe, Cain thought, he wasn't the only one thinking of what it had been like after Adora died.

Taking another breath, Cain went on: "I think you have another aunt, but she would have been a few years older. Old enough that I never met her, just heard about her in stories from Diana and Deirdre."

"That's okay," she said, glumly, "no one's ever come looking for me so I guess she's probably dead."

And now he was sorry that he'd brought the whole thing up at all. "Hey, honey, look…just because you haven't been found doesn't mean no one's looking for you. And you were born right in the middle of Az—the Sorceress' reign. It was sometimes hard getting communication back and forth. It's real possible they don't know they've got a niece or a little cousin out there, y'know."

Her head bobbed up and down, but it was clear she didn't believe him.

"Hey, if they knew about you there's no way they would have left you to…" If her parents and immediate family were dead, who was taking care of the little girl? Clearly it wasn't a cousin or an auntie. "Who's looking after you anyway, Kiddo? Whoever they are, they've gotta be out of their head with worry by now."

"I'm at an orphanage."

He should have been able to guess that one.

Jeb jumped into the conversation with, "Which one?"

She shrugged. Jeb looked up at him. "It can't have been too far from where she fell in the lake. Except…"

" 'Cept there's not much up thataway. How long's it been since you've been over there."

Shrugging, Jeb said, "I don't know. A few years? More than a few?"

"Ditto. I know we've had surveyors up there since the relocation. There's got to be a record of who's moved into the area since Finaqua was abandoned." Redirecting his comments to the girl, Cain said, "I'm guessing you don't exactly know where you live, do you?"

She gnawed on her lower lip for a moment, then shook her head. "Maybe if we were close, but…I don't know around here too well."

Cain drew a big hand through her hair and was surprised to find it extremely soft. The girl herself, he was now noticing, looked rather soft and new and, well, clean all over for that matter. "Someone took a bath I see."

Making a face first at him, Delia twisted around and stuck her tongue out at Jeb. Then giggled when he stuck his back out at her. Cain chuckled, too. "Do you guys wanna stick around and watch us work on our fancy crowd control maneuverin'?"

Jeb gave him a non-committal look. "My original plan, if you want to call it that, was to give Miss Delia here a tour of the grounds. Thought she might like to see something other than the inside of an infirmary."

"I liked the infirmary," she instantly protested. "The water-ceiling was pretty."

"If you really liked it, you can remember to thank Princess DG when you see her," Jeb told her. "It was her idea to turn a private family room into the infirmary."

"That's a family room?"

"Not anymore," Cain tossed in. She didn't seem to hear. "So that's what you two are off to? Touring?"

"Unless you want to stay here and watch Dad and the guys, Del?"

Cain raised an eyebrow. Del?

Jeb shrugged.

"I want to stay here with Mr. Cain."

Jeb started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"He's old enough to use a 'mister' for, right?" Delia asked innocently.

Jeb laughed harder.

Cain didn't know whether to be annoyed, amused or depressed. The depression was winning. "Just 'Cain' will do for you, Kiddo."

"But Jeb said—"

"It so happens that I'm the boss of Jeb. I sign his checks—"

"The Queen signs my checks."

"I approve his time," he amended without missing a beat. "And so what I say goes. Maybe we'll test out how 'Mister Jeb' sounds if you're good."

Cain left them standing by the railing, but not before ruffling the girl's hair. Delia pulled a face that had him grinning as he jogged across the yard.

OooOZzzZOooO

DG stopped in front of the guard standing outside her sister's bedroom. Try as she might, she couldn't remember the guy's name. Probably Cain hadn't put him on her detail yet. He looked kinda new, too. At least she couldn't remember seeing him around, and usually she had a pretty good memory for faces.

"Hey…how's Az doing?"

"I believe she's asleep, Your Highness."

"DG," she corrected automatically even if most people tended to ignore her. Usually the best she got out of them was a "Princess" that could either be a title or a term of endearment. "Have you been with my sister long?"

"Not quite three months, Your Highness."

"How do you feel about coffee, Mister…"

"Hines, Your Highness. And I like it well enough."

"Perfect. In about two weeks you'll probably be put on my detail then you can give me a better update on my sister's…status."

The idea didn't seem too kosher to Hines, despite the half-bow he gave her. Hmm. "If you could make sure no one bothers Az unless absolutely necessary? That would be great."

"Of course, Your Highness."

DG turned and began to walk away. "And just because you're trying to wiggle your way out of spilling all my sister's dirty secrets don't think you'll also be getting away with 'Your Highnessing' me for very long."

"Yes, Your Highness," Hines called after her, but she thought there might just be a hint of laughing in his voice. Oh yeah…she was wearing him down.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Cain put a hand on Jeb's arm to stop him. Everyone else had wandered out ahead of them, briefly leaving the two alone. "How'd it go with Delia?"

"You mean after half the Personal and Palace Guard fawned over her?" Jeb asked, grinning.

Cain grinned in return. "Yeah, after that."

"Great. There's not too many kids around so I don't know what we're going to do about her tomorrow but I thought Tissovel said something about some of the younger maids being able to keep an eye on her after their mornings have cleared up. Have to clear it with Housekeeping first but…"

"Good. If they can get off that is."

Jeb frowned. "What's wrong, Dad?"

Cain shook his head. "Dunno. That little girl's been on my mind all day."

"You worry too much."

Smiling a little, Cain nodded. He pushed Jeb towards the door. "Yeah, well, that's what they've been paying me to do since before you were born, son. Almost comes natural."

"Maybe that's the problem."

Cain shrugged. "Might be, but… I don't know. I guess I just feel for her, is all. Lost her family, been bumpin' around from place to place. She's only about nine annuals old."

"Seven."

Cain stopped just on the other side of the doorway that would lead them to the barracks. "Seven annuals?"

"Just turned. But she's all legs so it's hard to miss." Jeb pushed him out.

Cain snorted. "Tell me about it. Well I'll be." Shaking his head, he looked out beyond the barracks, beyond the training ground to where he knew the lake was and the star speckled sky beyond. Little Deirdre McNault had a little girl, and she wasn't around to see it.

"Do you think there is another aunt?"

Bringing himself back, Cain turned to his son. "Hmm?"

"For Delia. You said that she might have another aunt who was a lot older."

Cain took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. "I surely hope so. It's been a long day, son. My pillow is calling my name awful hard. Don't stay up too late."

"Sure. Rest your bones, Old Man," Jeb said, patting his father on the shoulder.

"I'll show you an old man." Cain grabbed Jeb's arm and quickly twisted it behind his back. Grunting and laughing, Jeb managed to pull himself free. Signs that it had a good day, minor adventure notwithstanding.

"And before you ask," he said quickly, "I've got the kid bedded down with some of the maids she took a liking to. Last I saw they were picking out doodads for her hair and planning a big slumber party."

"I always was glad Adora and I were blessed with a boy." Cain patted his son on the back. "See you in the morning."

"Yup."

OooOZzzZOooO

The gun was in his hand and pointed at the face of his attacker before he was even fully awake. He cocked the safety. His assailant whimpered.

Cain's eyes focused. In the dim light of the setting moon, Delia's honey-brown hair was a silvery, tangled halo. He couldn't see her blue eyes in the bad light, but for sure there was too much white showing. It probably had something to do with being on the business end of his firearm.

Calling himself ten kinds of fool, he thumbed the safety and raised his gun. "Delia…darlin', I—"

A shape unfolded from the dark. Immediately the safety was off and he was looking down the line of his firearm.

Light blazed, blinding Cain. But in that second before he turned his head away he saw her. Princess Azkadellia. In one night he'd drawn down on a child and a princess of the realm. If his own pride didn't have him strung up, either the Queen or her Consort would see to it. And once his son found out the particulars, he doubted Jeb would raise much fuss.

Cain thumbed the safety and raised the gun. Again. "Princess, I—"

The Princess Azkadellia swept forward, the light of her magic dying as her focus changed, leaving everything with glowing edges as his eyes adjusted.

"Your Highness, I didn't—"

She stopped him with a look as she gathered Delia into her arms. The child immediately wrapped her long skinny legs around the princess' waist and her narrow arms around the princess' neck. It should have been a funny picture—the princess in her nightgown with a whip-thin child stuck on her like a growth—but she was far from amused. If looks could kill, Wyatt Cain had a feeling he'd be in a bad way.

With that parting shot of pregnant silence, she turned on her heel and stalked out of his room, leaving the door open wide. Delia's eyes latched onto his and he turned away in shame.

He heard her wail moments later.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"I want Cain."

Azkadellia walked the length and breadth of her impressive room, the leggy child still in her arms. Though they ached and her back had begun to protest, she refused to put Delia down until she could make her understand that bad things could have happened if she had remained with Captain Cain.

"I know you do, sweetheart."

"I want Cain."

The force behind Delia's protests had weakened as she tired herself out, but not her adamancy. Or perhaps it was her misery that kept her going. She lapsed into silence, but Azkadellia could feel new tears wetting her bare shoulder where her nightgown had been shifted by the girl constantly wiping her face there. Delia had screamed, she had wailed, she had sobbed until Azkadellia had been sure that she would be sick. She had done everything except try to fight and wiggle her way out of the princess' arms. For that, at least, Azkadellia was grateful. But it pained her to see, to feel, the child so miserable and to know that she was the source.

Carefully shifting Delia in her arms, hoping that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep, Azkadellia slowly walked into her sitting room and from her sitting room into the hall where her personal guard stood waiting at attention.

"Please send someone to find Captain Cain," she said calmly. "I want him brought to me immediately, unless it would somehow tear him from matters of state." She hoped that her voice conveyed how much less important she considered 'matters of state.'

Delia lifted her head from Azkadellia's shoulder. Her red rimmed eyes confirmed that she had been crying. "Cain?"

They thought that she was about seven annuals old, but at the moment she seemed younger. "Yes, dear heart. He's coming."

Delia dropped her head back onto the wet shoulder, holding Azkadellia even closer.

By the time he arrived, in a state of half dress that made the princess wonder exactly what he had been pulled from, she and Delia were settled onto a chaise lounge and Delia was nodding off. But she awoke instantly, if cautiously, when she heard two pairs of boots on the carpeted floor.

"You summoned me, Your Highness?" If he was displeased with the summons, there was no sign of it.

"I did. It would seem that although you drew your weapon on her, Delia will not be happy if she is not with you. Please take her." She wondered if she'd kept the sourness out of her voice, but didn't think she had. Not from him.

Captain Cain took a step forward then stopped. "If you don't mind my saying so, Highness, the barracks are no place for a little girl. Even in the officers' quarters."

"Of course not. Please feel free to use one of the guest rooms on this floor. The one that had been meant for you is still available and should suit." He would see to the girl. The small issue of proper rooming was thus no issue at all.

Nodding reluctantly—surely any man who had pulled a weapon on a little girl wasn't exactly pleased to see her again so quickly—and took the final step that brought him within arms-length of the chaise.

Almost as if drawn to a magnet with a stronger pull, Delia turned out of the princess' arms and launched herself at Captain Cain. She buried her face in his neck. Azkadellia rose slowly as he backed away. "I bid you both good night, Captain."

He nodded as best he could, considering the burden he carried. "Goodnight, Highness."

OooOZzzZOooO

He kept seeing her, standing in the cold room made colder by bright moonlight: she'd been barefoot and barefaced, nightgown splotched with tears, wrinkled and twisted from Delia's mishandling, her long hair in disarray. If she didn't do something with it before going to bed, she'd be up with it half the morning, probably wishing for a good pair of shears to cut the whole thing off. Adora wasn't much for cussing unless her hair was in just such a way. 'A wreck and a ruin' she used to call it, which were about the only words out of the whole argument between herself and her unwilling hair that could be repeated in polite company.

Delia was almost a surprise—hot in his arms when he had expected her to be just as chilly as the princess' voice.

He tucked the girl into the large bed, done in deep forest green, midnight blue and a blaze of gold, and smoothed back the tendrils of hair that had escaped her night-braid. "Now why'd you have to go and upset your mo—"

He caught himself and his words before they could do any damage. Thinking of Adora and tucking Delia into bed had him remembering tucking a very young Jeb into bed after he'd tried his mother's very last nerve. And that had been a job Adora Cain had walked into with both eyes wide open, fully intent on being somebody's mama. They'd talked about children long before they were married and had agreed that seven or eight or nine would be just about right. Princess Azkadellia on the other hand had no idea what to do with a child. She hadn't been one for very long herself.

"Be nice to the princess," he amended as he continued to stroke the girl's forehead. She watched him with rapt attention. "She's just trying to help you out. Okay?"

Delia nodded. "Okay," she whispered. "Where are you going?"

He turned around. "Just gonna pull up this chair, Sweetheart, and bring it close to the bed. That all right by you?"

"Yes."

"Good." He settled himself in the chair, fixing the buttons on his shirt. Somewhere around redoing the fourth mismatched button, he realized he'd been talking to a princess of the realm with his shirt untucked, half done up, suspenders somewhere around his knees.

Sighing he gave Delia, finally asleep, a long measuring study. For someone who'd apparently gotten what she wanted, she looked about as unhappy as the princess had when she'd handed the girl over.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

A quick glance in the mirror confirmed what her hands had already told her: her hair was impossible. She would either have to try untangling it immediately or prepare herself to cut it in the morning. For once, however, the Princess Azkadellia was well rested—if at a strange hour.

She returned to the hall. "Tayborn."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"If I understand correctly, you stay awake through the night guarding my sleep. This is correct?"

She could see a different kind of response floating behind his eyes, but he gave her a straightforward, "Yes, Your Highness."

Of course Tayborn was on his second rotation with her and would know that she didn't sleep well, if at all. "So you will not be disappointed if I walk in the garden, then."

"No, Your Highness."

"Very good." She turned, returning to her rooms to walk through them and into the small garden beyond her window. Tayborn quickly overtook her, however, to check the perimeter. Azkadellia would have smiled if not for the numerous threats against her life. There wouldn't have been a reason for the creation of a Personal Guard otherwise.

"All right, Your Highness."

"Thank you, Tayborn." She quickly found the bench she wanted in front of a small ornamental fountain, and pulled her combs from her pockets. As she worked on the knots in her hair, she recited for herself the lives of the men who had pledged themselves to protecting the royal family—to protecting her.

_Tayborn…Former Tin Man and father of three. One child in the Academy to become a Tin Man, the others dead. His wife sent to the prison camps and worked on by my Alchemists. She survived almost six years. Tayborn spent half a year in a tin suit._

_Sherman…sole survivor of an attack on his village…_


	5. Acclimation

Chapter 5: Acclimation

Jeb set Delia up on a high stool in the kitchen, out of the way of the bustling staff. "Okay you, I heard about that stunt you pulled last night."

"But—"

"No buts. That wasn't very nice what you did to Princess Azkadellia and the captain. Got them both out of a sound sleep. Got'em both riled up and feeling guilty. Didn't you like the slumber party the maids put together for you?"

"I did, but—"

"What'd I say about buts?"

"No buts," she replied, her face crumpling.

"Jeb Cain," one of the cooks called out, "are you making that little girl cry?"

Oh geez, he was half afraid he was. "Did you hear about that stunt she pulled?"

"What do you expect?" someone else said. "She's underfed, in a new place, only knows three of us. She was just as likely to come looking for you, though only the Gray Gale herself knows why."

Jeb turned around. "Keep your nose out of it, Lizzy."

"I'm just saying."

'Cept she was right. Great. Jeb turned his attention back to Delia, who still looked miserable, and wrapped his hands around her knees. He shook'em around and she giggled…but looked just as miserable as soon as he was done. "Look, Kid, I know you're scared and you're lonely but…"

But what? She couldn't go barging in places? If it had been her parents it would have been one thing, but she'd latched onto the Captain of the Personal Guard and a Princess of the Realm. It really wasn't appropriate. Heck, it probably wouldn't be completely appropriate even if they were her parents. But she was just seven. "You're not making this easy on me, Kid."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. Here. Let's get you fed while we figure this out. You're gonna be alright right here?"

When she nodded, he popped off to beg something for her (and himself) only to have two plates thrust into his hands. "You're gonna make a decent father someday, Jeb, but you need more work."

"Thanks, Lizzie," he responded dourly. He and Delia ate breakfast in silence while he thought. Jeb was a bit surprised to find her sitting all but under his arm by the time they were done. Sighing, he said, "We're gonna work this out, Delia. I promise. We're supposed to start looking for your people today."

She dropped her dark blond head onto his arm. "Do you think you'll find somebody?"

"Don't know," he answered truthfully, "but we'll give it everything. I can promise you that.

"Now I am busy for most of the morning, but I know the maids won't mind you tagging along with them. How's that sound?"

"I want to stay with you."

He had a feeling she might say that, except he thought she'd have another Cain in mind.

"Can't, Kiddo. Like I said, I'm busy. Any—"

"Can I go with Princess Azkadellia?" She'd flattened out the E in the princess' name, making it sound less like her own.

Jeb's first instinct was to tell her no, flat out, but he had no idea what was on the princess' schedule. "We'll go ask her. If she says no, though, you have to abide by that and go hang out with the maids, all right? She's a Princess of the Realm. There's no gainsaying her, even if you want to."

Delia nodded.

"All right. Let's see if I can steal another cup of coffee, then we're off."

OooOZzzZOooO

Azkadellia cut her eyes from Lt. Cain and his charge to the serving trays on the table. How in the world could she entertain a child? She hadn't played any games in over fifteen years. What did she know about—

"Hey, I've got princess practice this morning and magic lessons right after that," DG interjected. "That'll keep me busy until way after lunch and it's always more fun with an audience. Moral support and all that."

Sitting further along the table, Tutor groaned.

"So you can hang out with me if you wanna, Delia."

"Okay!"

Azkadellia lifted her eyes to the lieutenant's face. He was smiling. "Great. Thanks so much, DG. I'd say she'd be no trouble, but, uh—"

"But I'm more likely to corrupt her anyway. Yeah, yeah." She waved him off. "Go…guard something or something."

And that covered that. Azkadellia finished her breakfast in silence as Delia and DG talked and giggled over their plans for the day.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

She didn't look up when she heard the sound of someone approaching because it was either DG, sneaking off from her lessons, or a servant reminding her to take her noon meal. DG liked to surprise her, and so Azkadellia often let her believe that she had. And she rarely wanted to take the noon meal, at least not in the dining room all alone or awkwardly seated with whomever else had been enticed from their busy lives to eat. Better to remain in hiding in the library. And if, perhaps, both DG and the servant came together then Azkadellia had an excuse for eating among the books—an excuse that was better than a mere claim of royal lineage.

So she was startled when dark blond head and deep blue eyes appeared at the arm of her chair instead of a dark brown head and bright blue eyes.

"Delia?"

The girl, who had approached with confidence despite her circumspection, twisted on her feet. "Hi."

"How did you get here?"

"I asked the first person I saw where you would probably be and they said the library so then I asked the next person I saw where the library was and they told me which way to go and that's how I got here."

Azkadellia took a moment to slow the girl's words and replay them in her head at a speed she could follow. "Ah. I see. But why?"

"I wanted to see you?"

That sounded like a curious reason from a six—no seven—annual old. Especially when as a question. "Does my sister know you're here?"

The twisting feet stilled. "Um…"

Lowering her book to her lap, Azkadellia raised and shook a negligent hand as if shaking back a dangling sleeve, though her cuffs were closely bound to her wrists. A broad-shouldered servant appeared at her side, careful not to block the light through the window. "Your Highness?"

"I believe it's around noon. Please have lunch sent up. And have someone inform my sister as to the whereabouts of her missing ward."

He bowed and turned to leave.

"Thank you," she called after him. She still wasn't in the habit of common courtesy.

"Why are you frowning?"

Azkadellia returned her attention to Delia. "I should have thanked Corte."

"But you did. I heard you."

"But it's likely that he didn't hear me because it took me so long to say it."

"It did sound like you almost forgot."

Azkadellia frowned again. She sighed. "Yes well…I'm not very good at being gracious."

Delia returned her frown. "What's gracious?"

"Courteousness… Kindness," the princess added quickly. "Saying things like 'please' and 'thank you' at the right times without someone first prompting you to do it. Telling you that you should say those things."

"Oh. I know what that's like. My mom was always remembering me to—"

"Reminding, dear."

"Reminding?"

"Instead of 'remembering' I think you meant 'reminding.'"

Delia nodded sharply. "Well Mom was always doing that to me because I could never remember to say stuff like that when I was supposed to. But I mostly remember now. Least I try to, because I know she was always trying to so hard for me to remember so it must be important."

"Very important," Azkadellia said, reaching out to take Delia's hand in her own but pausing halfway. Delia plucked it out of the air and brought it to her cheek. "Your skin is cold."

"My whole hand is cold," Azkadellia said as she stared. It was like she was looking at an entirely different hand, one that she could feel. And because it wasn't really her hand she couldn't pull away. Which was how Delia came to be holding it, studying it, as she sat on the little reading table when lunch finally arrived.

The servant, Corte, coughed politely. "Your Highness…"

Azkadellia eyes snapped up, focusing and refocusing on the surprisingly brawny man. Corte always served her in the library and she suspected it was because he was, in fact, a secondary bodyguard. She didn't remember him from before, but he had been one of Captain Cain's and her father's appointments. And, of them all, she was in the most danger of assassination.

"…your lunch."

Or it could be that any meal sent up by the kitchen staff either needed an entire army of servants to transport it, or a surprisingly brawny one.

"Yes, thank you." Azkadellia tugged on her hand, pulling Delia toward her. The girl giggled as she let herself fall across the princess' knees. A smiling tugging at her lips, Azkadellia helped the girl upright. "Come, Delia. Unless you're not hungry."

"I'm hungry!"

"Good, then take your seat across the table and Corte will serve us."

Corte, balancing the wide platter with one hand, bowed to the girl. It was clear that she didn't quite appreciate the skill involved, but Azkadellia did and offered the broad-shouldered servant a smile as Delia scampered to her seat. Corte carefully placed the tray on the low table then whisked away the top. Azkadellia turned to him. "The potato fries I recognize, but what is everything else?"

"It was thought that, as you were entertaining one so young, finger foods might be more appropriate."

His answer was so vague that Azkadellia wondered who he was protecting with it. But it had been a very good idea, no matter whose idea it was, and she told him so. "That's perfect. And the little things in the middle? I recognize… Are they for dipping?"

Corte nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."

A rustle of fabric drew their attention to Delia. "What's the purple stick-y stuff?"

"Leola root."

"Is not," both woman and girl exclaimed. Corte smiled: "It is. Cut into narrow strips like the potato fries. Her Highness Princess DG's idea."

The small smile on Azkadellia's face grew, softening it. "That sounds like her. And the rest?"

Corte gave them a brief listing, suggesting which sauces should go with which dishes before leaving them to their lunch. Delia kneeled up on her seat and dove into lunch. Used to eating later in the afternoon and so not truly hungry, Azkadellia nibbled on lightly fried asparagus and watched Delia. The girl ate with happy abandon. Messy abandon.

Chuckling softly, Azkadellia took her cloth napkin and dipped one end in her water glass. "Delia, sweet one, are you finished?"

The girl was licking her fingers. "Uh huh."

"Don't do that. Come here and let me…attempt to clean you up."

Frowning, Delia asked, "Is it that bad?" She glanced down at herself.

Azkadellia laughed outright. "Yes. It is. Come here." She pulled the girl close once she was within range and began working on her hands. "I see you don't really believe in napkins."

"Those were napkins?" Delia asked, glancing back at the table. "That's not how our napkins at home were."

Azkadellia dipped a fresh corner into her water glass. "No? Well it's how they are here. Feel free to use them at will."

"What does that mean? At will?"

The princess thought about that for a moment as she moved from cleaning Delia's hands to the ring of sauce and food-bits around her mouth. "It means 'whenever you want to.' Your will is the thing inside you that says that you want or don't want to do something. Your 'I will' or 'I won't.'"

Delia giggled.

Azkadellia smiled. It was all she could do not to press a kiss to the child's forehead. She was so… She was completely unlike everything she'd experienced under the Witch's influence and the past two years during the rebuilding process. Azkadellia wasn't even sure if her behavior was normal for a girl her age and in her situation. She hoped it was. She hoped that they would find the child's family soon.

She didn't know much of anything about children at all. Her hands stilled. "You should be outside with DG and Tutor, or keeping company with the maids," she said softly.

"But I want to be here with you."

"Didn't you enjoy your time with DG and her lessons?" Azkadellia knew that they weren't very much fun for her sister, but, in her own experience, it was entirely more enjoyable to watch.

Delia shrugged. "It was okay."

"And you didn't have fun yesterday with the younger maids?"

"They were all right."

"Only all right?"

Delia twisted on her feet.

"Very well, you may stay with me. But only for a little while longer. You shouldn't stay cooped up inside."

"But you stay inside all day."

Azkadellia frowned. "Who told you that?" It was true, but she couldn't believe someone had actually said it, and to a child.

Delia shrugged. "No one actually _said_. Not just, y'know, said it like that."

"I see." Now seven annual olds were commenting on her life. "Well that's fine for me, but you're a little girl and little girls should not be cooped up inside all day."

"I was out this morning."

With DG, right. She was being outwitted by someone less than half her age. But she didn't want the child to go, so why keep pushing her away? "That's a good point. All right then…if you're going to stay in the library with me then you're going to have read with me as well." Perhaps the idea of study would coax the girl into changing her mind.

"Would you read to me?"

Azkadellia looked down at Delia, startled. "Would you like me to?"

Her dark blond hair danced as the child nodded fervently. It flashed a warm honeyed color in the sunlight.

"Well, then I suppose we'll have to find a book."

"Is there something _you_ like?"

She couldn't remember—or she didn't want to. Rather than think on that, Azkadellia reached out and tucked a loose section of hair behind the girl's ear. "You are our guest. I'll read something of your choosing. Then maybe we'll read something that I like," she added as the child began to pout. "Assuming I can remember one, of course."

"I bet you can!"

"I appreciate your faith in me," said Azkadellia somewhat sardonically. "Come. Let's find those books you want read." The princess stood and offered her hand to the child. "This way."

They soon found themselves lost in the tall rows of books. "There's so many," Delia whispered.

Azkadellia looked down at her charge. "That there are. This room encompasses two stories and half the floor-space of the palace. There should be a lot of books."

"Are you sure there are children's books in here?"

She nodded. "Very sure. My father used to bring me here almost every day."

"Really?"

"Oh yes." Leading the child so that she was walking in front of her, Azkadellia steered them around a stout, circular bookcase until the found the opening that faced the tall windows. Delia's oohs and aahs made her smile. The area was made for comfortable reading; even the windows had padded seats. "Here are all the children's books. The books for the very youngest start here," she said as she indicated the right side of the narrow entrance, "and become more mature as you go around."

Delia turned in circles, staring at the books with wide eyes. "On the outside, too?"

"Yes the outside, too," said Azkadellia as she perched on one of the seats in the center of the circle.

"I didn't know there was this many books."

Azkadellia's eyebrows furrowed. "Children's books or books at all?"

"Books at all," said Delia with a dramatic flourish.

"Do you know how to read, dear one?"

Delia nodded as she approached the books. "They teached—"

"Taught."

"Huh?" Delia looked over her shoulder.

" 'They taught.' There's no such word as 'teached.'"

"O-oh," Delia said as she went back to the books. "Okay. So they taught us how to read at the orphan school."

Azkadellia felt something unpleasant and familiar flutter behind her ribs. "How…how long were you at the orphan school?"

Delia's feet dragged, making trails in the plush carpet. "A while."

She wanted numbers, real hard numbers but was afraid of what the child might say. Instead she cleared her throat. "Have you found anything you like?"

Shrugging, Delia said, "These are all for babies."

"If you keep going around you should find something that you like or want to try."

"Do you have _Galen's Quest_."

Azkadellia started. "Yes. I think I might even know where it is." She stood in a rustle of skirts and began to slowly walk the circumference of the shelves. Dropping to her knees, she began to scan the bottom row of books. Delia was beside her in moments, sitting on the edge of the spread of skirts.

"There it is!" she said, pointing.

"Indeed," Azkadellia said slowly, unnerved by the child's proximity. "Is this what you want me to read to you?"

"Mmhmm." She nodded vigorously, climbing to her feet. "Please!"

"It can't all be read in one afternoon," Azkadellia warned.

Delia shrugged. "S'okay."

Azkadellia looked up at the child, surprised.

OooOZzzZOooO

"Okay, you." Jeb picked Delia up and set her on the counter of the kitchen.

"Jeb Cain!" the head cook called out.

"Wuh oh." He winked at the kid. "Madea's gonna get us."

Delia giggled.

"Don't tell me you have that girl up on my counters."

"Okay!" he called back, grinning at Delia.

"Je-eb!"

Snickering, Jeb reached for Delia and took her to another part of the kitchen and set her down on one of the tall stools. "All right. I think we're safe this time," he said as he settled himself into another stool. "So. You spent all morning with Princess DG."

Delia nodded. "Uh huh."

"And you spent all afternoon with Princess Azkadellia."

Delia nodded again. "Uh huh."

"And you had fun?"

She nodded a third time.

"Great. So…tonight…you'll be okay hanging out with the maids? They miss you."

Delia kicked her feet against the rungs of the stool, eyes fixed on the floor.

"They have another sleepover planned for you."

She gnawed her lower lip. "The sleepover from before was nice."

"And they're willing to try it again, Kid. Just for you."

She looked up and met Jeb's eyes. "For me?"

"Yup. For some crazy reason they think you're kinda cute."

Delia giggled.

"And any excuse to have sleepover," he said with a grin. "Now c'mon. As far as I know they've already got dinner and snacks and all sorts of super sugary, super not-very-good-for-you stuff that, quite frankly, Kid, I wish I was having for dinner.

"So you're not going to pop up in my father's room or anyone else's room tonight. Right?"

She gave him one firm nod. "Right."

"Okay."


	6. Pop Quiz

Chapter 6: Pop Quiz

The last time Wyatt Cain found himself having to carry a small child anywhere, he and Adora had just abandoned their vehicle at the side of the road and were taking to the forest on foot. Adora had already stumbled more than once. It had been a long ride for all of them, and though she was no slouch, she hadn't had her husband's Tin Man training. So he'd had Adora adjust the packs he was carrying, even letting her convince him to give her a couple, so that he could take their son.

Delia McNault was a sight longer than Jeb had been. But then her mother had been a leggy thing, too. Cain shook his head. It didn't matter that he was holding the proof of it, but it was near impossible to think of little Diedre McNault having a girl of her own. He hitched her up in his arms. Arms folded against his chest, she burrowed closer to him. Jeb hadn't been much for snuggling in his sleep. He was more likely to flop about like a living rag doll that didn't have enough stuffing. Even in a bed he'd slept sprawled about, legs and arms every which way.

"Thank the—!" Tissovel threw her hands over her face. She rubbed at her eyes. "The girls have been up searching everywhere for this one."

Cain nodded. "I don't doubt it."

"They thought they lost her when they got up to clean this morning." She turned, indicating that he should follow.

"Earlier, I'm thinking," Cain said as he trailed the tall, narrow woman down the hall.

She threw a look at him. "Don't tell me she's been with you all night."

"Yup."

"Captain Cain, I am sorry. I do apologize. The girls have tried their best to make the little one happy, and she always seems to be at first, but give her an hour and she's moping about, tired and depressed, but punchy and restless." Tissovel ran a hand through her short hair. It stood up in orderly furrows as if she'd been doing it all morning. "Seems we're going to have to lock the door at night. I wouldn't like to do it, and Breanne will likely half-yank the door off its hinges thinking its swelled and stuck before she remembers that it's locked, but the little one will be with us and out of your way."

"Eh…" Cain glanced from the kid to the head of Housecleaning. "I don't think either princess is gonna go for that."

Tissovel stopped in her tracks and turned around. "And why would we have to tell them?"

Cain grinned. "DG'd find out. She's got the knack."

Frowning, she continued down the hall. "It's not that I don't want to see this little one happy—"

"We all do."

She nodded. "But it doesn't seem to be possible."

"We'll figure something out."

"Have to. I can't have my girls neglecting their duties over one child. If she were mine, or any of ours, it'd be a different story."

Cain nodded.

"But she's not. And so recently hurt." Tissovel shook her head. "What are we to do?"

"Wish I knew."

OooOZzzZOooO

"Hey, Alixia!"

The redhead paused outside Cain's office door. "Hey, yourself."

"Would you mind dropping this off down at the calligraphy writing scribe thing office?" He held up a paper.

Smiling, Alixia stepped into the office. "You mean the scribe's office?"

He knew exactly what he meant, but liked the effect his "bumbling" had. Cain smiled. "Yeah. Them. I'm hoping someone down there can interpret this chicken scratch and make something useful out of it."

Alixia took the paper, studied it, and shook her head. "Well you figure it's what they get paid for. Course they may be wanting a bonus for taking on this one."

"Hey!"

Laughing, Alixia pulled the paper beyond Cain's grasping hands and turned for the door. "I'll make sure this gets to the scribes. Can't promise you what they'll make out of it, but they'll make ya somethin'."

"Git, you!"

And she did, laughing as she skipped out his office. Cain smiled. Alixia was a nice girl. If she kept going the way she was, she might be worth picking up for the Personal Guard in a couple of years.

He'd spent all morning working on the notices for one Delia McNault: Lost Child Found.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

DG swung Delia up onto her hip with an oomph. "Geez louise, kiddo. You're about as tall as me." Which garnered a giggle out of the kid. "So what happened to you yesterday, Short Stuff? One minute you're there watching me make a fool out of myself with Tutor, and the next minute…poof. Gone. Up in smoke. Well, not up in actual smoke—because around here that's an actual possibility…"

Which set Delia giggling more.

"But even figurative smoke is pretty disturbing when it means you lost somebody."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go up in smoke." Delia frowned.

"So-o. Where'd you end up?" DG pressed.

Delia shrugged.

"No way, kiddo. I've pulled that shrug-thing before and if it didn't fly for me, then it won't fly for you."

"Shrugs can fly?"

DG started to deny it, but stopped in her tracks. "Y'know, in the OZ they just might."

OooOZzzZOooO

_Galen's Quest_ sat face down on the little table in front of Azkadellia's chair. She'd been reading the same page of her own book for several minutes now, unable to keep her mind steady on anything all day and not quite sure why.

She knew why. She just didn't want to think about it.

If Delia wanted to be with DG, Azkadellia could hardly blame her. Azkadellia's days consisted of the long hour it took to turn her night-braid into a bun, breakfasting with her sister and the others, and systematically going through all the books in the library. Which was hardly competition compared to watching DG's magic lessons, even when they went awry. Especially when they went awry. And DG was good with children—all of the ones in the Central City palace adored her.

Azkadellia gave up on the book in her hands as her stomach announced itself. There was embroidery in her bedroom that she could work on. There was the chess game she'd started with her father weeks before he and Mother had left for their tour of the OZ—she could study it, think of new strategies. There was sketching and drawing and…staring out the window, staring into space, reciting her history. There were so many things she could do.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"It wasn't easy…"

Cain grinned, looking up from a copy of the beautifully worked notice to the Scribe who had brought it back to his office. "I bet. My handwriting used to be the talk of the HQ back when I was a Tin Man."

"That bad?" he asked.

"That good." Cain chuckled at the Scribe's expression. "A Tin Man puts his hands to pistol more often than to a pen. Even with all the paperwork. My handwriting was better than most."

The Scribe made a strangled sound before turning to walk out.

"What's got him all up in knots?"

Cain looked up at his son. "Asked him to make a notice for me to post around the villages beyond Finaqua."

"For Delia? Looking for her folks?"

"Yup."

Jeb frowned. "But I don't understand. Why's that got him in a bother."

"I hand wrote it."

His son groaned. "Oh, Dad. That's just not right."

Cain laughed. "He understood it well enough. Scribes do good work." Half rising, he held the notice out for Jeb as he crossed the room. "It's downright pretty."

Snorting, Jeb snatched the notice from his father. He studied it for a long moment. "Hey, that is good. I'll get some messengers to post these for us."

"Round that lake, too."

"Yup. Think I should see if the Palace Guard'll spare a few men to go with the messengers? Maybe two each."

Cain frowned. "Think it's necessary?"

"I'm asking you. That was one malevolent forest we were riding through."

"Yeah but…" Cain shook his head. "I don't think it's that serious. 'Sides, they're just putting up notices about a lost little girl. It doesn't say she's a guest of the Princess Azkadellia, just that she can be found at the royal residence in Finaqua. Which would explain all the fancy working on that notice."

Jeb laughed, turning the paper this way and that to study the flourishes dripping off the beginnings and ends of each word. "Yeah. It would. Okay, Cap. If you think we're good—"

"I do."

"—then I'll see this gets sent off proper."

"Thanks, Jeb."

OooOZzzZOooO

There was a cursory knock on the door, it was open after all, before PJ announced himself. "Afternoon, Captain Cain."

Cain barely glanced up from the paperwork on his desk. With the royal couple gone he could finally catch up on it. It needed doing, he hated doing it, and usually he didn't have five minutes to press together _to_ do it. Unfortunately he hated a full up desk even more than he hated the paperwork that was doing the filling, otherwise he'd be doing just about anything else. " 'Noon, PJ. What can I do you for?"

"Found something that might interest you."

"Oh?" Frown pulling at his face, Cain put the butt of his pen on the paper to mark his spot and looked up. "What's tha—" He flopped back in his chair. Some expression or other tugged at his face, but he wasn't sure if it was a smile or a grimace. "Hey there, Kiddo."

Clutching PJ's hand, Delia half hid behind his left leg. It hardly helped. PJ wasn't much bigger than a sapling.

"You run away from Tutor and Princess DG again?"

"I didn't run away," she told PJ's leg. The young man chuckled. Delia looked up at him, face pinched. "But I didn't. I was looking for Princess Az to read to me."

Cain frowned as PJ shrugged and said, "That's what she told me when I saw her in the hallway."

Brow raised, Cain asked, "Is that what you and Princess Azkadellia agreed on?"

Delia shrugged. "S'what we did yesterday. And we didn't finish _Galen's Quest_ yesterday and she said we would."

Which was good enough reasoning for a seven annual old any day. Cain sighed. "All right, kiddo. Thanks for bringing Delia around, PJ. You can go back to…whatever you were doing."

The guardsman gave him a sharp nod. "On my way to lunch, sir." Crouching beside Delia, he took her other hand in his. "Catch you later, short stuff." Using her own hands to do the dirty work, he lightly boxed her cheeks.

Delia giggled.

"See you around, Cap."

"Yup." Cain watched him go. Now what to do with the kid? Tissovel was busy. Heck, _he_ was busy. "C'mere you. Since you can't find the princess, how about you draw her a picture instead?"

"Okay!"

Frowning, he glanced around his desk and then around the office. Holding out his hand out to Delia, he stood. "How about we take us a little field trip? We'll go down the hall to visit the scribes and ask them if they have any supplies for making drawings for princesses. Think they would?"

She nodded, her honey blond hair swinging around her face. She took his hand. "What do scribes do?"

"And while we're there we can ask them what they do all day." Cain resisted the urge to pick her up and let her ride on his back.

Delia gently swung their hands as they walked, but clung close whenever someone she didn't know passed them. Despite the absence of the royal couple, there were a number of courtiers and dignitaries waiting around for their return, trying to curry favor with DG (for all the good it would do them) and using Finaqua as a place to conduct personal business. Many of them ignored the Captain of the Personal Guard, seeing only his livery and not the man. Which was the point of the uniform. So that was fine. Some, however, recognized Cain for who he was and gave him a nod of recognition. The servants were too busy to mind anyone unless they were flagged down.

Seated in his office again, which seemed to have grown another stack of papers in his brief absence, Cain took the moment to study Delia as she spread her borrowed supplies on the floor. Where was this mysterious orphanage that she had come from? Why weren't _they_ getting notices about a missing child? Delia didn't seem like one to run away. Even if she was a regular runaway, how far was she likely to go? She was only seven annuals old.

Cain scrubbed his face with his hand and slumped back in his chair. Maybe Ambrose would have access to the survey reports for the area. Except for a brief visitation in the infirmary, Cain hadn't seen the Zipperhead in days. Not Raw either, but that wasn't too unusual.

"Hey, Kiddo…"

"Uh huh?" She didn't even look up.

"Have you met the Viewer?"

"Mr. Raw?"

Cain snorted. "Uh huh."

"Uh huh. Today. He was nice. And soft."

Soft? Cain frowned and sat forward. "Soft?"

"And ticklish. But I didn't mean to do that." She looked up from her drawing. "I asked if I could touch his fur but I think I was supposed to touch his arm."

Cain's eyebrow climbed.

Answering the unspoken question, she said, "Instead I rubbed his side. And he giggled. And then DG—"

"Princess DG," he automatically corrected.

"—said she didn't know that Raw was ticklish." Delia frowned. "Then he kinda backed away."

Passing a hand over his eyes, Cain slumped back in his chair. "Knowing DG, that was probably for the best." Looked like they were going to be short one at dinner tonight.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"Glitch!"

All eyes turned first to DG then to the figure strolling through the open double-doors.

The advisor grinned. "Hey there, Doll. What's for dinner?"

Jeb caught his father's eyes and shook his head. Advisor Ambrose had gone "missing" in his lab for days and, with his flyaway hair and unkempt appearance, looked it. Although, now that he was thinking about it, the advisor had shown up to check on his father when they'd been in the infirmary. Except it had seemed more like a chance visit rather than something the advisor had planned to do. Which pretty much described all of Jeb's encounters with him, unless it was also a meeting with the Queen.

One of the footmen brought another chair to the table. DG made room between her and Princess Azkadellia.

"Jeb! You have a sister!"

He glanced at his father. "I do?"

"You have a daughter?" Ambrose asked, sounding less sure of himself.

Jeb's eyes widened.

Princess Azkadellia cleared her throat. "I think he means little Delia."

"Oh."

"Me?"

Jeb glanced at Delia in her pigtails, sitting on his left, between him and his father, then up at the advisor. Who was sitting across from her. Oh. "She's not my sister, or my daughter. This is Delia McNault. We—"

"McNault. The furriers?"

"Yeah, those McNaults." His father was chuckling. "Anyway, she kinda fell into our laps."

"Really?" The advisor's eyes locked onto Delia.

Princess Azkadellia lightly touched his arm. "Not really. She fell into one of the lakes in the forest. By the cliffs. Captain and Lieutenant Cain rescued her."

The advisor's eyes skipped over Jeb and his father until Delia spoke up: "Princess Az took care of me while I was sleeping."

"That so, Azka-D?"

The princess' eyes skimmed over the tableware. "I didn't do much."

Jeb snorted. "You did lots, Your Highness. Isn't that right, Del?"

Delia nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh. She saved Mister Cain from _dying_."

That choking sound was his father.

"Didja now, Princess?"

As far as Jeb knew, Ambrose was the only one who used a term of endearment for Princess Azkadellia, even if it was just "princess." Not counting the Queen and Consort and DG.

The princess shrugged elegantly. "DG assisted."

"Only after you told me what to do, big sister."

But it was clear that, as far as Princess Azkadellia was concerned, the subject was closed.

The advisor scratched behind one ear, apparently oblivious. "Sounds like an adventure."

Delia nodded solemnly, the fine curls the maids had put in bounced around her face. "I slept through most of it."

"That so, Little Del?"

Squirming in her chair, she nodded again. The advisor gave her a kind smile, before shifting his attention between Jeb and his father. "So what did happen?"

"Well—" Cain started only for Jeb to interrupt: "Why don't we let Delia tell it."

"Me?" She shot a look at Jeb. So did his father. And the princess.

"The kid?"

Princess Azkadellia's eyes had already turned back to her plate when Jeb looked at her, expecting her opinion. He turned to his father, meeting his eyes. "Why not?"

Delia looked ready to protest until she cut her eyes at Cain. At his nod she took a deep breath and sighed. Jeb could feel her kicking the legs of her chair. "We-ell. I guess it started in town, really. The boys were bothering me. As usual. But then Alexander and Nicholas wouldn't stop when the teachers told them to. They kept bothering me even when we got back—"

"Got back from where?"

She looked at Cain. "From town."

"To the orphanage?" At her confused look, Jeb said, "Orphan school?"

"Uh huh." She nodded at both of them. "We were back at school and Alex and Nicholas kept up bothering me. The teachers told them to stop still, but they wouldn't. And then they got some of the girls to get in with them." Jeb was almost sorry for making her talk about it—her face had become drawn and pinched as she remembered the day. "So…" She tugged on one of her pigtails. "So I ran away."

Jeb glanced at his father, but not before seeing Princess Azkadellia turn toward the girl. "Then you fell into the lake?" he asked Delia.

Shaking her head, she said, "Nuh uh. I hid for a while."

"How long was that, kiddo?" Cain asked.

She shrugged. "Until the next day."

"Until the next day?!" DG was fuming. They all were. Princess Azkadellia had turned white and her lips had disappeared. A quick glance at his father was like looking at himself. He could see his own clenched jaw, but squarer. It was his nostrils flaring but on a broader nose.

Only Advisor Ambrose managed to keep a carefully calm mask. He was the one that Delia's eyes latched on to when she asked, "Did I say something wrong?"

Smiling, the Advisor shook his head. "Nah."

Princess Azkadellia took her hand. "We're all just surprised, dear one."

"Sure?"

Nods met her wandering eyes. "Finish telling the story," Princess Azkadellia said.

"We-ell, I hid until the next morning. I didn't mean to, but I fell asleep. But when I woke up it was cold and I was hungry and I realized how I had been gone a long time because the light was funny so I was going to go back."

Frowning, Jeb said, "But you didn't make it back."

"No," she said sadly. "I was almost back to the school when I saw Nicholas and Alex and some of the other kids. I don't know…maybe they was—"

"Were," came three correcting voices.

"—looking for me? But I don't think so because when I saw them I stopped and then they saw me, and when they saw me they started running for me and shouting and stuff, so…so I ran."

"Did they chased you?" DG asked.

She nodded, looking down at her hands.

Jeb heard his father shift beside him before he asked, "You didn't see the cliff before you fell over it?"

"I did." She looked up at Cain. "And I had stopped running. But Alexander and Nicholas had come up behind me and they were…teasing me."

Frowning, Jeb said, "So you jumped off a cliff?" He hissed, shooting a look at his father? _What?!_ he mouthed, but only got a glare in response.

"So how'd you fall off the cliff, kiddo? I saw you, Delia. You didn't jump, sweetheart."

She looked like she was about to squirm out of her seat until Princess Azkadellia reached across the table and stroked her hair. "It's okay," she murmured. "We just need to know."

"Why?"

The princess looked past her to catch Jeb's and Cain's eye. His father answered: "Because it will help us find where you belong."

"I don't belong there. I don't want to go back to the orphan school," she said, miserable.

Jeb gently tugged on one of Delia's curls. "But they might be able to help us find your family."

"Then why didn't _they_ find them already?"

He hated when they asked the smart questions.

"Because they don't have the resources we have at the palace," Advisor Ambrose said quickly. "The orphanage tells us what they know about you, we take that and apply our resources to them and see what we can do."

Frowning Delia looked up at him and his father, then Princess Azkadellia across the table. She dropped her head against Jeb's side, surprising him. "They started throwing things at me. And I started going back… And then I fell."

The silence that followed had the kid squirming at Jeb's side. He wrapped an arm around her.

"Delia?"

She lifted her head to look at Cain. "Yeah?"

"You said that these two boys, Nicholas and Alexander…they liked to bother you?" At her nod, he added, "Any particular reason? Or were they just bein' mean?"

Delia grabbed for Jeb's hand, tugging at his fingers. Jeb ran his thumb over the back of her hands. "S'okay, kiddo. It's just us here. And the Advisor."

She shook her head, rubbing it against Jeb's side. "Don't want to."

"It's all right. We're won't go teasing you, too."

No one spoke, no one ate, no one moved while they waited for Delia to make up her mind. Jeb continued to stroke her hand.

She muttered something against his side. He leaned down. "Just a little louder, short stuff."

"They didn't like my name." She stopped pulling on his fingers. "They said I was named after the Sorceress and my parents must have been for the Sorceress because they named me for her, but my name is for my grandma, not the Sorceress."

Jeb tried to ignore the stricken look on Princess Azkadellia's face as he focused on Delia, but he could feel the way everyone was also not looking at her. "We like your name just fine."

OooOZzzZOooO

"Well that was fun in a completely not kind of way," DG muttered to Ambrose.

Azkadellia could only agree, although not verbally. Dinner hadn't exactly gone downhill after Delia's impromptu interrogation, but only because it wasn't possible to get any lower. After it was all over the child had refused to move more than a few inches from Lieutenant Cain's side. Azkadellia had, quite frankly, been surprised when Delia had come to stand beside her after dinner. It had just seemed… No, there hadn't been any "seeming." There hadn't been any thinking at all. Clearly having to remember the moments that had led to her being in their care disturbed Delia. Acting partly on instinct, remembering all the times her father brought her to his side when she was upset, and partly by the lieutenant's example, Azkadellia had drawn the girl close. It had been the right thing to do.

Of course now she had a growth attached to her side in the shape of a coltish seven annual old with drooping honey blond curls and too-wide eyes. It was easy to see why Ambrose had mistaken her for Lt. Cain's child. She lacked their square jaw and it did not seem as if her hair were naturally inclined to curls despite the wisps, but on the surface… She could see why the child gravitated to the Cain men. She had hugged them both fiercely after dinner had ended, ignoring DG's playful teasing about Delia's "boyfriends." The lieutenant had stuck his tongue out at her.

The head maid was waiting for them at the end of the hall. A hawkish looking woman, she was eyeing Delia with a mixture of affection and bemusement as she made her curtsy. "Your Highnesses. Advisor Ambrose." She greeted him with a deep nod. "I will take Miss Delia for the night." Smiling kindly, she extended a long-fingered hand to the child. "Come. I overheard the girls talking. They have been making all sorts of plans."

"That won't be necessary. She's staying with me."

Delia's hand tightened in Azkadellia. Both Ambrose and DG had stopped to turn and look at her. Only Tissovel seemed unsurprised. But then she had been with the family for a very long time, Azkadellia mused. She had survived the Sorceress. There probably wasn't very much that could surprise her.

"Shall I have some of the child's things brought up to your suite, Your Highness?"

Azkadellia nodded, hardly daring to glance down as Delia's grip in hers tightened. Memories of their last "sleepover" loomed large in the princess' mind. "That would be very kind of you, thank you."

"No more than my duty, Your Highness." Tissovel gave them each her curtsy before striding out of sight.

"Sister, dear, uh…" DG cleared her throat. "Not that I don't think you'd make an excellent babysitter, I mean you put up with me all those years after all, but, uh, considering the last time—What? Ow! Glitch!"

Azkadellia suspected that the advisor, and dear family friend, had none too gently spared DG's mouth from further intrusion by her foot. Untangling their fingers, Azkadellia knelt before Delia. "Do you want to stay with me tonight? It probably won't be as much fun as a sleepover with the maids. They like you very much."

"I want to stay with you."

"Are you sure?"

Nodding, she pushed her hair back behind her ears. "I'm sure."

Azkadellia resisted her impulse to pull the child close and hug her. "Only if you are sure."

"Oh come on, you two." Ambrose was facing them, hands on his hips but slowly sliding into the pockets of her trouser. "It's a sleepover. You want to, she wants to… Why don't you have Lizzie in the kitchen send up some marshmallows so you can roast them in the fireplace or something."

A small smile tugging at her face, Azkadellia watched the advisor's hands miss his pockets. "Tired, Ambrose?  
He nodded. "It has been a long, long day, Princess. You have no idea."

DG leaned into Ambrose and he threw an arm around her. "Stupid courtiers and ambassadors and hangers on," she said. "Don't they know Finaqua is the summer residence?"

"That's exactly why they're here, Doll-face." Ambrose kissed the side of her head. "Look, I'm gonna drop this princess off at her place. You two princesses do your thing here and try to keep your noses clean, okay?"

Delia giggled.

"We'll do our best," Azkadellia reassured him.

"C'mon Deeg. I'm surprised you can walk in a straight line, kiddo."

She snorted. "You and me both. Gotta agree with you, longest day ever…"

Holding Delia's hand, Azkadellia listened to the conversation as it echoed down the wide hall. She looked down at her overnight charge. "Ready?"

Delia nodded.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

This time, Cain was prepared. "Don't think I'm giving you half my drawer space," he groused, but his firearm remained in its holster between the headboard and the mattress where he could reach it from under his pillow. Cain bundled her in the extra bedding he'd set aside.

"I don't want half your drawer space."

Cain looked at the frown marring the little face in semi-darkness. He smoothed the drawn brows with his thumb then drew a line down the round nose with his finger. Jeb used to laugh when anyone played with his nose. "That so, little one?"

"Uh huh."

"Okay. Then I guess I can part with half my bedroll."

As Delia fell asleep beside him, Cain wondered what they would do when they went back to the palace at Central City.


	7. And They Rise in the Morning

_Previous chapter: Delia and Azkadellia grow closer; Delia reveals how she came to be drowning in the forest lake; Cain wonders how things will change when they return to Central City._

Chapter 7: And They Rise in the Morning

Azkadellia woke up confused and uncomfortable. Had she fallen asleep in a chair? On a bench in the garden? She didn't remember going into the garden. The last thing she remembered clearly was the awkward way she'd had to curl her body so that she could run her fingers through Delia's hair as the child slept against her side.

Delia. Yes. It had been almost hot with her pressed so close. And then she'd been cold.

She'd doze off. With Delia pressed against her side. But she wasn't a very deep sleeper. She wasn't a very good sleeper at all. So she'd been awakened by the rustle of bedclothes. And she'd been awake to hear little girl feet pad in near silence across the room and out the door. If only the bathroom were in the direction she had headed.

Azkadellia lifted her head. She was unsurprised when she met the corner of a wall. Slowly opening her eyes she marveled at the dim pre-dawn light that softened the stark white walls and wondered what had awakened her this time. Whatever it was, surely she should go. Her reputation was almost the least of her concerns if she were seen by the servants.

Outside, the grass was wet on her bare feet. Had she truly gone out without even her slippers this time? It would appear so. But she had, apparently, remembered to bring her dressing gown. Clutching it closer she reminded herself hat she would also have to bypass Lt. Tayborn.

OooOZzzZOooO

This was it. She had her courage slapped up on that sticky pole, or whatever the saying was. DG turned from the hall window on the upper floor, all but running back to her room.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Jeb was shoveling food in his mouth when Cain sat down for breakfast. Shoving in next to Tayborn, who was coming off the night shift himself, he said, "You act like they don't feed folks around here."

And got a grunt in response.

"I see." Coffee in hand, Cain turned to Tayborn. "And how'd it go with Princess Azkadellia?"

The big man cleared his throat. For a moment Cain wish he'd sat across from his lieutenant. He'd forgotten about the gaggle of female servants who invariably spent breakfast, or lunch or dinner, trying to catch Tayborn's eye. "Quiet. She's still sleeping well."

Cain nodded. "The Queen and Consort'll be happy to hear that. Doc Henry, too." He took his first sip of coffee and savored it.

"Think it'll last, Cap?"

"Don't rightly know."

"Think it's that little one's doing?"

Eyebrows going up, Cain contemplated his breakfast for moment. "Probably. You know what it's like running after kids."

Tayborn nodded, a ghost of a smile passing over his warm brown face. He'd managed to have three kids during the long years of the Sorceress' reign, in spite of everything, but he'd lost two. His oldest had only just joined the Academy when Cain pulled Tayborn from the Royal Army.

"What time are we expectin' them back, Cap?"

Cain looked up from his eggs to his son. "Early this afternoon. I'd guess some time between one and three."

"Anyone warned them about the kid?"

Cain nodded. "Tutor's been using it as excuse for DG to do some practical work with her magic. From what I hear the first message-bird was doin' just fine…until someone shot it down."

The other two men chuckled.

"Apparently Tutor didn't warn DG of the possibility. Nor did he tell her how she'd be connected to the little guy, so as she'd know when it was received or intercepted. Gave her the shock of her life."

Jeb put down his coffee. "Is that what Danny was going on about the other day?"

"I expect so. Anyway, the Royal Couple knows about Miss McNault and the status of us finding her folks—"

"Which is complete SOL, isn't it?" Tayborn asked.

Cain sighed. "That's about the size of it. It's been over a week. Now I'm not exactly anxious to send her back there, but I'd like to see whatever files they've got on her. See if we can do better with the information."

His lieutenants nodded their agreement. Tayborn set his cup down with an air of finality and made to stand. "Well excuse me gents, but my bed's calling."

Cain snorted. "I bet. Is your report—"  
"Already on your desk, Cap."

He raised his cup in salute and Jeb did the same. Alone (Tayborn's adoring fans had suddenly found better things to do than ogle their table), father and son ate in comfortable silence. Cain did raise an eyebrow when Jeb went off to get a second, heaping plateful of breakfast but nothing else passed between them for a long time. And that was okay.

"Hey Cap, Princess at six o'clock."

Cain looked over his left shoulder and saw DG making her way toward them. She was pausing to say good morning to the other palace servants as she passed, but it was clear that she was gunning for their table. Or the breakfast buffet. They were both in the same direction.

Rounding the table, she plopped herself down next to Jeb, seating herself across from Cain. She bumped his son's shoulder. "Hey, you."

He bumped her back. "Hey, yourself. Ready for another fun filled day of having your person guarded while you try not to destroy the front lawn?"

"Ha ha."

Jeb gave a slight head-nod of acknowledgment to someone. Cain presumed it was DG's night-guard, de Silva, since his lieutenant hadn't asked DG about him. "So what can we do you for, Princess? Trying to avoid a diplomat? I thought they were banned from the family breakfast."

DG snorted. "They so are. Actually I want to talk to Cain. So if you could uh…"

"Beat it?" Jeb threw a look at his father.

"I can guard DG's person for a little while. I'll make sure to hand her off to your guys."

Jeb nodded, then stood. "See you on the lawn, Deeg."

"Please don't remind me."

"I'll make sure Delia's wearing her safety gear."

"Again I say, ha ha."

Cain studied the princess as she waited for Jeb (and de Silva) to leave, then for them to be well out of earshot. Curious, he studied her carefully blank expression and noted that it wasn't quite as blank as he knew she could do. "What's on your mind, Kiddo?"

Studying a coffee ring permanently stained into the smooth wood of the table, she fidgeted with the ring on her pinky. It had been a gift from her father, he knew, and she played with it or pulled on her fingers when she was nervous. "Can I ask you a question, Cain?"

"Course. What's up?"

"And you'll tell me the truth?"

He frowned. "Have I ever not told you the truth?"

"Not as far as I know."

"DG—"

"I'm just saying. I mean…Okay I don't know what I'm saying." She thumped her fist on the table. "What happened to courage on sticky poles?"

"Huh?"

DG waved his confusion away. "Look, I have a question for you and I need an honest answer."

"You want to know how I feel about you courting Jeb?"

DG's head snapped up. "Huh?"

"Nothing."

"No! No. I want to know what your intentions are toward my sister," she said in a jumbled rush.

Cain blinked. Had she actually said… "Huh?"

"I said, I want to know…what your intentions are…toward my sister," she bit out.

Frowning, Cain answered, " 'To protect her life at all costs, even to the sacrificing of my own?'"

DG reached across the table and flicked Cain's fingers. "Ow! DG!"

"That's part of the stinking Oath of the Guard!" she hissed

"Well considering that's what my intentions are, it seems fitting. What is your problem?"

Leaning low across the table, she hissed, "My sister sneaking out of your room every morning at the crack of dawn for the last week. That's my problem. How long has this been going on? Why didn't you tell me? Were you _ever_ going to tell me? Or my parents?"

Cain stared at DG stupidly, at the hurt and anger on her face. "Huh?"

"Don't try to deny it, Cain. I saw her. The first time I thought it was a fluke, but it's been happening all week and—"

"What do you mean 'you saw her?'" Cain shot back. "Saw who?"

"Azkadellia, you dirtbag! You're sleeping with my sister and—"

"Not that who I'm sleeping with is any of your business, Princess," he bit out, "but the only female sneaking into or out of my rooms every night for the past week has been Delia. And she doesn't sneak out. I carry her back to Azkadellia's room every morning. And every morning Princess Azkadellia is there."

Jaw working, DG stared at him long and hard before she spoke again. "I know what I saw, Captain. What I've been seeing."

"And I know who's been in my room. So unless your sister has been switching places with the little one—"

DG snorted. "Look, all I know is that you better get this sorted out before the 'rents get home. Which, if I overheard right, is some time today-ish. Good day, Captain."

Cain caught her wrist before she could slip out from under the cafeteria bench and run away. He had a duty to perform by her, making sure that she got to her morning lessons okay. And she was serious. Really serious. They hadn't had a fight like this since he and the Royal Couple had first decided that a bodyguarding wing of the Guard needed to be created. DG didn't struggle in his grip, but she didn't ease the tension between them either. She'd slip away if he even hinted at letting go.

Cain studied her face, at the storm clouds of anger and hurting and disgust that were roiling over it. Their eyes caught and held. "I don't know what you think you saw, Princess, but I swear to you that I have not been sleeping with your sister. Not even in the literal sense of the words. Last time your sister was in my quarters was two weeks ago, right after Del showed up, and she was like as not to kill me then. If she's been in there since, I don't know about it.

"When I said the only female in my bed was Delia, I meant it. Seems to me she sneaks out of Azkadellia's room every night so she can sneak into mine. And I take her back to Azkadellia every morning, just like I said. And the princess is never awake. I swear it."

DG's jaw worked.

"Have I ever lied to you before?"

It took her a moment but eventually a stubborn, "No," worked its way out of her. "Prevaricated maybe."

Cain snorted.

"But never lied."

"Then why should I start now?"

DG slumped, finally easing the tension between them. Cain let her go as she plopped herself back down in her seat. "I don't know, Cain! And thinking that you might be lying to me, you and Az, has been even worse than thinking that you and Az were together."

"Well, gee, Princess. Way to make a man feel like he's more than just a hired gun."

She reached across and pinched him. "You know what I mean. If you were making Az happy and vice versa, then who am I to complain? But I would think you'd at least _tell_ me about it. One of you." She dropped her head into her hands.

"Hey." Cain reached over, patting her head before pealing her hands away from her face. "Hey. If something was going on between me and your sister, you and Jeb would be the first to know. Heck, any of he secrets you and your sister have between you, you'll probably hear it from the maids first."

Then it occurred to him. If DG thought she'd seen something then probably… "Oh—" He bit off his next words, trying to be mindful of his company, though the snarl remained on his face.

"Yeah. _Oh_." DG had clearly been thinking along similar lines. "Big freaking 'Oh.' So what're you gonna do about it? Because as far as I can tell word hasn't gotten around yet, but it will. You know it will."

OooOZzzZOooO

Tayborn shot up and had his weapon pointed at Cain, center mass, even before his eyes were open. Knowing that the move was reflexive, seeing as how he hadn't knocked on his lieutenant's door to announce himself, Cain didn't take it personally. He didn't make any sudden movements either.

Moments later, Tayborn's eyes were open and the weapon was lying between his knees on the light coverlet.

"Quick question for you, Clayt." Cain watched as Tayborn rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

"Yup. What can I do you for, Cap?"

"Where was the princess last night?"  
"Azkadellia?" He frowned. "In her room. Paced a bit after she put the kid down, then she dropped off. Stayed in bed all night."

"And Delia?"

"Snuck out as usual. Why? Kid not show up in your bunk?"

Cain could see the man beginning to truly wake as he thought Delia might have somehow gotten lost on her nightly walk from Princess Azkadellia's rooms in the palace to his quarter's down in the soldier's barracks. "Don't get yourself worked up, Clayt. Kid's okay. I was more concerned about the princess."

Relief made the strong brown shoulders slump. "Oh. Fine. Heck, great for her. Now that she's got care of the kid for half the day she drops off faster and sleeps all night. Was thinkin' that you should suggest to the Queen that maybe Princess Azkadellia would do well in the nursery when we get back to Central City."

Cain snorted. "How come I get the honor of suggesting it?"

" 'Cause you're the captain, Captain."

"Go back to sleep, man."

"Yes, sir. Night, sir." And with that the big man dropped back onto the bed, turned over and promptly went back to sleep. With his back to Cain, he could see the man's scars. The ones on the outside at least.

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Azkadellia gingerly placed a hand over her stomach. What did it say that the return of her parents filled her with dread, not excitement. Glancing at DG, who was fidgeting on her feet and pulling at her fingertips, Azkadellia wondered what it said of her family. She took a deep breath and proceeded to let it slowly leak from between her lips.

Narrow fingers grasped her left wrist and held on dearly. Azkadellia glanced down, her breath coming out in a rush. She smiled. "Don't you look pretty! Isn't Delia pretty, DG?"

DG left off her own nervous musings to give Delia a once-over. She grinned. "Spin her around, Az. I bet that skirt flares."

"Would you like to?" she asked Delia. When the girl nodded, Azkadellia took proper hold of her hand and spun her around. Blond curls flying—and skirt flaring just as DG had predicted it would—laughter bubbled up from the girl. "Like that, do you?"

Delia nodded, fervently.

"And the curls and your dress?" One of the maids had taken to curling Delia's hair, but this was the first time Azkadellia could remember asking the girl if she liked it.

"Everything."

"You do look super-cute," DG said.

"But—" She was suddenly shy all over again. She pressed herself into Azkadellia's skirt, almost as if she was hiding from DG's scrutiny.

"But what, sweet one?"

It took her a moment, but eventually she said, "I don't want to meet the Queen."

Azkadellia and DG shared a look. "She's really nice," DG said. "I mean I haven't known her for very long, but she can be pretty awesome when she's not being, y'know, all queenly."

"I agree with DG, sweet one. And she's our mother. You like us well enough, don't you?" When Delia nodded, she said, "Then don't you think you'll like our mother as well?"

"But what if she doesn't like me?" she said in a small voice.

DG snorted. "Not even possible."

"So long as you don't throw custard in her face," Azkadellia said.

DG reddened. "That was not on purpose. And Mom forgave me."

Azkadellia looked down at Delia. "So you see, if our mother can forgive having custard thrown at her face and decide that she likes DG anyway, then you are certainly a…" She glanced at DG for the right word.

"A shoe-in?"

"Exactly. A shoe-in."

Frowning, Delia looked up at the two princesses. "What's a shoe-in?"

DG laughed. Smiling, Azkadellia shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The Queen will like you just as much as we do."

"But…but what if she doesn't. What if she doesn't want me and she makes me go away to another orphan school?"

Azkadellia lifted Delia. The girl immediately wrapped her legs around the princess' waist. "No on will send you away on your own. But if someone does, then I will go with you. I will not abandon you. I will not willingly let you be sent away." They stared at each other for a long time, before Azkadellia added, "All right?"

Delia nodded. "Okay."

"Do you believe me? That I won't let you go alone?"

Looking very solemn, she nodded again.

A tremulous smile pulled at Azkadellia's lips. "Good." It blossomed, suddenly, when Delia threw her arms around her before wiggling in such a way that Azkadellia had to put her down.

A cry went up from servants further down the lawn. The Queen and Consort's carriage was approaching. Azkadellia absently noted the way that the Personal Guard—all of them except Tayborn and de Silva who were likely still sleeping—simultaneously straightened their dress uniforms and formed a protective wall between whoever was in the carriage and the princesses in their charge. The first time they'd done it had been unnerving. The thought that someone might first attack their parents and then use the pirated coach to get at her and DG was something that had never occurred to her. She'd wished then, and wished again now, that it would never occur to anyone else either. No one else should ever suffer on her account.

Minutes later they could see the carriage coming around the bend. To avoid the maze, their parents had had to take a rather circuitous route around the lakes and forests that surrounded Finaqua on its other sides. The entire palace and all its staff could be emptied and be on the other side of the maze before an attacker was even within sight of the palace coming from that direction.

Delia's hand tightened in Azkadellia's, even as DG suddenly reached out to grab her right hand. Which caused her to smile, for no reason she could understand.

Their father was first out of the carriage and catching sight of the smile, he answered it with one of his own before turning back to help hand their mother down. Only when their mother was out of the carriage did the light surrounding her and DG's clasped hands die. The Personal Guard seemed to sag a little. DG sighed.

Lieutenant Gardner, the head of her mother's detail, took up position in front of the royal couple. _"The Queen and Prince Consort,"_ he bellowed.

As one, every person in sight bowed or curtsied save the lieutenant and the princesses. Finaqua was under their command and would be until her mother officially took up residence. The Personal Guard parted for the royal couple as they made their way up the ornamental stairs.

Azkadellia nearly grinned. The silly look was still on her face when their parents climbed the short flight of stairs and greeted them. The smile on their father's face was luminous.

DG stepped forward to make the official welcome to their mother, as their father approached Azkadellia. "You're beautiful when you smile, little Az." He trailed a finger down her nose. "I wish you'd do it more often."

The smile on her face dimmed somewhat, but wouldn't go away. He kissed her forehead before changing places with their mother. The Queen cradled her face in both hands. "I heard what your father said," she murmured. "And I heartily agree. I miss your smiling countenance."

The smile dimmed more, but still it would not go.

"And who is this little one?"

Delia pressed herself into Azkdellia's skirts. "Oh, no you don't. Mom, allow me to present Miss Delia McNault."

"McNault. The woodsmen?"

Azkadellia knew that Captain Cain had apprised their parents of Delia's arrival, but played along anyway. "No, Mom. They were—"

"Not the McNault furriers?"

Delia smiled shyly at her queen. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Furriers to royalty, my dear. You come from an honorable and well-known family."

The girl beamed at her queen.

"What do you say?" Azkadellia gently prompted.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"And curtsy."

Delia did the best curtsy she could manage while still holding onto Azkadellia's hand. The Queen gave her a bright smile. "Now, Miss Delia, I am made to understand that you are a guest of the court for the time being?"

It took the girl a moment to figure that out, then she nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. Is-is that okay?"

Azkadellia squeezed her hand reassuringly, knowing full well that her mother would not put a seven annual old out of the palace to defend herself in the wilds of the forest surrounding Finaqua. Or worse, the maze.

"The court is delighted to have you. Come, shall we all go inside?"

Their father appeared next to his wife and offered his elbow to escort her inside. The palace guard saluted smartly as the royal couple entered the summer palace, trailed by their daughters, youngest guest, a host of Personal Guard, and servants who promptly went back to their neglected chores.

"She didn't send me away."

Azkadellia looked down at Delia. "Told you she wouldn't."

"You knew she wouldn't?"

"Yes."

"But you would have gone with me even if she had?"

"Yes."

Delia nodded.

OooOZzzZOooO

Cain knocked on the door to Azkadellia's study. "Come in." She looked up from her writing desk. "How might I help you, Mr.—Captain Cain?"

"I'd like a word with you, Princess, if you don't mind. It's pertaining to Delia."

"Of course. Please, take a seat." Azkadellia gestured to the handful of chairs haphazardly scattered around the room

"Think I'd prefer to stand."

"As you wish, Captain. Is something wrong?"

"Thought you might tell me, Princess. Didn't know if you'd noticed, but the little one has gotten into the habit of sneaking out at night to come to my quarters in the barracks."

She fretted her pen a moment before nodding. "Yes, I knew. And you always bring her back."

"Yes, ma'am, I do. What I want to know is what _you're_ doing going to my room every night."

Her face went white. "How—"

"DG. So it's true." At her nod, he did go find a chair and brought it close. "Princess, what the heck were you thinking? I've only heard it from DG, but if DG's seen it then probably half the palace staff has seen you sneaking in or out of the barracks. And if they haven't seen it for themselves they've certainly heard about it. There'll be talk."

"I-I'm sorry, Captain Cain. I…" She closed her eyes for a long moment. "I did not intend to bring your reputation and honor under scrutiny."

He waited until she opened her eyes to speak: "It's not me you should worry about, Princess. It's you."

She chuffed. "I do not think there is any more damage that can be done to my honor, nor that my reputation can get any blacker."

"Princess…"

"No, it's all right, Captain Cain. We both know the truth."

Though he heartily disagreed, he wasn't willing to argue the point at the moment. "Can you just tell me why you went down to the soldier's barracks? And where you spent your time? You certainly weren't in my rooms, though DG says she only ever saw you coming back from that direction."

She visibly swallowed, then set the pen down so she could clasp her hands in lap. "I did go to your quarters, though, as you know, I never ventured inside. I hid myself in the shadows and—"

"You mean to tell me you've spent the last week sleeping out in the corridor?"

All the color that had drained away from her face came rushing back. "Yes, Captain."

"Why?" He didn't even try hiding his incredulity.

She was silent for so long that he thought she wasn't going to answer the question at all. Then she seemed to settle something within herself. She took a deep breath. "I… Considering what had happened that first night when Delia showed up at your door unexpectedly, I was going to make sure she was safe. At first," she quickly added, probably thinking he was going to get angry at the reminder of his awful choice in targets that night. "I fell asleep outside the door that first night, quite unintentionally. But…I slept so well. Even though I woke quite early the next morning in an effort to avoid the servants."

"So that accounts for the first night. During which nothing happened."

"Yes. I know. I just… I just slept so well outside your door, Captain Cain. I made certain to tuck myself into the smallest space possible—"

He knew exactly what she was talking about. There was a tiny alcove formed by the oddly shaped room next to his and a cherry-wood table that held random bits of paper, pens and all sorts of odds things that he and the other officers made use of from time to time. She'd squeezed herself in there? And slept _well_?

"—so that I wouldn't be seen by a passerby. Then I made certain to be back in bed before you came by with Delia."

Cain scrubbed his face with his hands. "What about Tayborn? I talked to him this morning. He'd swear you've been in your bed, sound asleep, every night."

The Princess Azkadellia smiled then, the sly and dangerous Gale smile that he hadn't seen in nearly a year. "I told you once before, Captain, that I can slip my guard whenever I choose to do so."

"And here I thought it was DG that was going to be the death of me," he muttered, slumping in his seat.

Her smile softened before finally dropped away. "I am truly sorry, Captain Cain. Are you concerned that the story may reach my parents? I will explain it to them preemptively if you wish."

Cain shook his head. "If the palace grapevine's not already jumping with this, then maybe you really did go unnoticed." _Or maybe they're deciding to be discreet_, he thought privately. "I'll see how it goes and decide from there. No point causing a ruckus if there's no story going around."

"All right."

Standing, he put the chair back where he found it. "Princess, you know you can't keep this up."

Her eyes left his face to stare at the wall over his left shoulder. "I know."

"I…" He trailed off, not really sure what he meant to say. "I'm sorry." There was so much he was apologizing for, most of it things that were beyond his power to fix.

Catching his eye, she shrugged. "Don't be."

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

"Hope you guys don't mind," Jeb looked up from log he was about to feed the fire to his father. "I brought company."

He'd already asked them all if they minded Delia join them on their last night festivities. Basically they'd drink some and talk some and just be a bunch of guys hangin' out for one night. It had become their habit to have one last get together the night they left either Finaqua or the Northern Palace. When they left from Finaqua it was a bonfire on the grounds as far from the palace and barracks as they could get. The men would come and go as their shifts changed, but there was a spot for everyone around the fire, and they would all sleep under the stars—at least for part of the night. At the Northern Palace they took up a table as far from everyone else in the servant's cafeteria and didn't sleep at all.

The captain had left it up to them if they wanted to share the night with a little girl. Jeb hadn't been sure how he felt about it. He wouldn't have been surprised if the rest of the guys didn't. Stuff they usually talked about wasn't the kind suitable for little ears. Particularly not little girl ears.

But everyone had been okay with the idea. Jeb thought part of it was that they were all too tired to do more than talk a little and drink a little and get as much sleep as they possibly could.

A cheer went up as Cain brought Delia close to the fire. She dropped his hand and ran straight toward PJ, tackling him. The captain laughed. "Guess that means we're all right."

Jeb watched his father take a place between Gardner and Hinkle. Jeb knew the other two lieutenants had sent his father regular reports while they were on tour with royal couple, but it wasn't the same as hearing it face to face. And if they were all lucky, Hinkle would spin a yarn for them. The guy was a great storyteller. Him and the Consort seemed to get on too well, sometimes, but from what Jeb could see the other man knew when to turn it off and just do the job.

A quick glance over his shoulder showed PJ and Delia still rolling around in the grass. No one paid them much mind for the most part, but Jeb caught glances being tossed their way from around the fire. Delia had the good luck of not only being a nice, cute kid, but there were only a few children in residence. Most of them were the little brothers or sisters of servants up from the village for the day. Even the dignitaries that had bothered to follow the royal family to their summer home had left their children back in Central City. None of the Personal Guard had small children. Guys like PJ, him and de Silva on DG's detail, and Turner on the Queen's, didn't have any at all. The kid had no competition in the cute department, and hardly any other kids getting on people's nerves, shorting out their tempers.

Jeb wondered briefly how that would all change once they got back to the main palace. There were at least two classrooms full of kids Delia's age—and that was just among the servants.

Hinkle's voice carried over the roaring fire. "C'mon, Cain. Tell the story. I bet the kid'd love to hear it."

"Naw…she don't wanna hear that!"

"Hear what?" Delia popped up from her play-fight with PJ. After a week with them, she was used to just about everyone calling her "the kid." "Hear what, Mr. Cain?"

Gardner jabbed Cain in the ribs. "Mister, is it?"

" 'Cause he's old."

A roar of laughter went up from the Queen's and Ahamo's details. They hadn't heard that particular part of the story.

"Hey, Old Man, didja remember to bring some grub down, too?" Turner called out. He turned and winked at Jeb, who chuckled.

"Try catchin' this one, whippersnapper." A wrapped bag went flying over the bonfire. Turner caught it neatly. And then got thwacked on the head when condiments came flying after.

Jeb rolled out of the way when another wrapped bag went a little wide. "Hey watch it! You _are_ my Old Man, but I didn't say it!"

"Yeah, well, the story's for you, too, so consider this my way of including you."

Sitting up, Jeb dusted himself off. "Gee. Thanks, Pop." He tossed one of the packages back across the fire back in the general direction of his father.

He'd apparently missed, because in the next second, Cain said in an overly loud voice, "So I almost didn't marry your mother."

"Adora refuse you?" Hinkle teased.

"Ha! _That_ was nearly a shot-gun wedding. Your grandfather was somethin' else, Jeb."

Cain often said things like that about Jeb's grandfather, but the captain didn't usually go into detail about the old man. And it looked like he wasn't going to now. From what Jeb could tell the old man had been crotchety, forceful and possessing of the temper that his mother had inherited—but softened by an almost childlike sense of humor. He had apparently been serious about practical jokes.

Shaking his head, Jeb got up, took the bag that Turner had caught, and went to help PJ get some grub together. It wouldn't be anything fancy, just things they could cook over or near the roaring fire, but they'd all be hungry soon enough and there were their on-duty brothers to think about. If he remembered right, Sherman had already buried a bunch of potatoes wrapped in foil by the outer coals. Glancing across the fire, Jeb saw Gardner lean over to say something to Delia, sitting in the captain's lap, that made her laugh. Leaning back, she reached up to pat Cain's face. Apparently whatever had been said was about him.

"Kid's cute," PJ said.

"Yeah." Jeb smiled down at the canvas bag in his hand. "She's pretty good, too, otherwise that cute'd be pretty useless."

PJ made a sound. "Tell me about it. My youngest sister is a real looker, and she was really adorable when she was little, but she's got the personality of an angry papay. And she's only 14. I feel bad for the guy that finally goes for her."

That made Jeb laugh out loud. "I take it the war didn't help her temper any."

"Not in the least. Made me glad to finally be able to sign up. If the Sorceress had stayed in power any longer, Lara would have probably been her right hand," the younger guard groused.

"Sure she wouldn't have tried to take over instead?"

PJ shook his head.

Two hours later, Turner, de Silva, Sherman, and Grant had gone for their duty shift and Porter, Danny, Hines, and Atavia had taken their place around the fire. Later they'd come back and Cole, Shelby, PJ, and Davidson would take their place with their respective charges. PJ was taking Tayborn's turn for him since the captain had said he wanted all the lieutenants close. Jeb could see that it didn't sit easily with the broad man, but there was nothing to do about it. PJ was young, he knew, but reliable. Excellent even. If the captain hadn't pulled him from the regular army, he probably would have been the youngest captain in OZ history. He'd been the youngest everything else so far. Thing was Jeb knew that Tayborn knew it, too. Jeb turned that over in his mind for a bit as he watched the newcomers pig out on dinner.

Delia had found her way into Hinkle's lap, who was spinning a tale so tall that it was clear even she didn't believe…but she was enjoying it. Cain was walking the circle, conferring briefly with each of the men before letting them get back to their eating. They were guardsmen first. Times like this would be a thing of the past the moment they stopped remembering that. Each man stopped his eating to give Cain as detailed a report they could manage before the captain would move on. As he passed behind Jeb, he reached down ruffled Jeb's hair. "Goose."

Frowning, Jeb looked up at his father, who had already moved on to talk to Porter, his last interview. "Goose?" Jeb called.

Cain looked over his shoulder. "Yeah. Goose."

Leaning over, Davidson, who actually had a couple of grandkids, told Jeb, "You know. As in 'duck, duck, goose?'"

Jeb surged to his feet and tore after his father. He was gonna tackle the old man and show him who was a goose. Except he was already done interviewing Porter and had seen Jeb move. Cain took off running. But not before blowing his son a raspberry.

"Oh, no you don't!"

OooOZzzZOooO

"So you almost didn't marry Jeb's momma?" Delia stopped her star-gazing to look over at the elder Cain.

"That's right, kiddo."

"Why?"

Cain shrugged. "I didn't like her. She didn't like me. We both thought we were cold blooded and too severe and all sorts of things that weren't true."

Delia turned over on her stomach. "Why did you both think that?"

"Because young people are stupid," he said with a grin.

"But you did marry her eventually, right?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"Did you almost marry someone else instead? Instead of Jeb's momma?"

"Yeah, actually. I courted this one young woman in town for about a year until she finally let me down easy. The affection was mostly one-sided and mine. She was real nice about it but it still hurt somethin' awful. Which…" He glanced over at Delia. "…is how I finally got together with Adora."

"Jeb's momma?"

"Uh huh. Seein' as how it was her friend I'd been courtin' she knew a lot of the story already, but she didn't think I'd take it so hard. When she saw that, well, she plum felt sorry for me. Her house wasn't too far out from mine so she decided one day to bring me some handmade cookies. Nothin' too fancy, just some sugar cookies, but the gesture was real nice. Especially considering I'd thought she was a cold fish."

Delia frowned. "What's a cold fish?"

Cain thought about it for a moment, then said, "Have you ever touched a fish and felt how slippery and slimy and weird it feels when it's alive?"

She wrinkled her nose and nodded. "I caught a guppy once. It was gross."

"Uh huh. Well a cold fish is like that, but dead."

"You thought she was dead?"

Cain chuckled. "Not really dead. I mean… Dead in here," he said, pulling one of his hands from behind his head to pat his chest over his heart. "No feelings, no emotions. Cold and fishy."

"Sounds weird."

"Exactly. And that's how Adora thought about me. But then when I went and got my heart broke she got to see a different side of me, and I got to see a different side of her."

"Hunh." Delia rolled onto her back again. Eventually she said, "Who did you want to marry instead? Who was that girl who broke your heart?"

Grinning, Cain looked at her. "Why I believe her name was Diana. McNault."

Delia gasped and sat up. "My aunt Diana!"

"Yup. Wanna hear about it?"

She nodded enthusiastically

ZzzZOooOZzzZ

Jeb poked his head out of his bedroll. If the castle was being attacked, someone jabbing his side was not the way to let him know.

"Move over!" a familiar voice demanded.

He frowned. "Delia?"

"Move _over_," she said.

"Shouldn't this be my father you're ordering around?" he asked, even as he obliged by making room for her in the midst of his bedroll. "Why are you here with me?"

"It's the first time I could know where you sleep."

Jeb shook his head.

"You're skinny."

Snorting, Jeb said, "Go to sleep, kiddo."

* * *

Author's Note: It's been a long, long time, I know. A few factors contributed to the extreme delay on this one. Unfortunately, I can't promise that it won't take me just as long to post the next chapter. On the one hand, this chapter has been written for a very long time. Unfortunately, I post a chapter behind what I'm actually writing. That means Chapter 8 is written, but I won't post it until Chapter 9 is done.


End file.
